Of Beanies and Sharpies
by TheMistressofSass
Summary: Percy Jackson's the kid in highschool who always wears over-sized beanies, with not a single strand of hair showing. He also uses hoodies and slouches to hide himself and well, he's pretty much the loser of the school. Annabeth? Well, she's dating the bassist of the band Golden Time, Luke Castellan, she is popular, smart, and gorgeous. How do these two collide? Percabeth. AU.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey guys and girls! This is pretty much the third story that I am writing, which I know is a lot since I have a lot of things normally, but I just couldn't help myself. I had this idea in my head and I really liked it, so I hope you guys do to.**

 **This story, as said in the summary, features Percy who is a loser and always wears beanies so no one can see his hair, a hoodie which is pretty much his shell that he hides in, and he is friendless (supposedly). It also features a popular, smart, gorgeous Annabeth, who is dating Luke Castellan.**

 **Please review, suggest ideas that you might think are good for the story, and follow if you like it!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own the PJO series or any company mentioned. Neither any songs.**

* * *

 _ **Percy Jackson POV**_

I stuffed my Shake Junt skateboard in my locker and got out my English notebook out of my locker and closed it. I heard a couple of people snicker at my new notebook, which was purple and had Dora The Explorer on the front side. I ducked my chin and gazed down at the floor, a bit embarassed but I could care less. I started walking towards English, which was the last period of the day before I could finally leave this hell hole named Goode High School.

When I entered I immediatley chose the desk that was in the back and dragged the desk nearer to the corner, setting my notebook on top of the desk and sat down at the same time the bell ringed. I tugged on my hoodie and leaned backwards, careful not to make any eyecontact with the people that were already here.

The door burst open and a couple of kids who always had a basketball with them started hooting loudly, making idiotic jokes and talking about Mrs. Venus and her body sat down in the second row, passing the basketball to eachother. I rolled my eyes at their immaturity and slightly scoffed at them, and waited for the class to begin. Before I could tell them to shut up, pretty much the most drop-dead gorgeous girl in this school, Annabeth entered the classroom speaking with her boyfriend, Luke Castellan and the rest of the class piled in just as Mr. Blofis entered the class.

Grover Underwood, a guy who's in the 'Green Thumb' club sat down next to me and set his crutches on the floor. He waved at me and sent me his weirdish smile at me, making the corners of my lips tug up and I waved awkwardly back at him.

You see, Grover and I were pretty much bestfriends in Yancy Academy when we were in sixth grade, until I got expelled from Yancy. It was a surprise in seeing him again in Goode during Freshman year, but we never really rekindled our friendship. Sure, we talked here and there, got assigned some projects together, but other than that, we barely could be considered friends still.

As Mr. Blofis started the class, I took out my notebook which captured Grover's attention. He slightly tilted his head and gestured at the notebook, so I ripped a page out of my notebook and scribbled in my incomprehensive writing, _It was the cheapest notebook that I found._ I crumpled it in a ball and tossed it to Grover when Mr. Blofis wasn't looking.

It took Grover a couple seconds to understand it, and looked at me in a way as if he were looking at a kid who couldn't find his parents. My jaw clenched and I started staring back at Mr. Blofis, even though I wasn't paying attention to him. I hated it when people looked at me that way.

I really tried paying attention during class, copying notes when I found it important to do so, trying to read what was on the board but I just couldn't. My leg bobbed up and down and I was clenching my fists in frustration. _Stupid dyslexia_ , I thought. My mind was starting to wander, and it wasn't until five minutes after that I noticed. _Stupid ADHD_.

I sighed and copied what Mr. Blofis had just said as it seemed important, even though nobody actually copied that. I tugged my beanie lower and finally, the bell rang. I gathered my things but I was the slowest one to gather them, so naturally I was the last one to leave.

I looked up and saw Annabeth Chase speaking with Mr. Blofis. So I was second to last then. As I started to leave I notced a lavender sharpie was lying on the floor, so I picked it up. I grabbed and saw a name written right under the _Sharpie_ logo. It spelled, _Annabeth Chase_ in neat, feminine handwriting. I looked up to see Annabeth starting to leave so I tapped her on the shoulder.

"You dropped this." I mumbled, handing her the pen. She looked at me strangely as if she were trying to recall something. She grabbed the pen from my hands and stuffed it into her pencil case. "It's Percy, right?" She asked, staring at me as if I were a new species. "Yeah." I mumbled again and didn't quite meet her eyes. There was a slight awkward silence and I tugged on my hoodie uncomfortably.

"Er, bye." I told her and sent her a slight awkward wave and left the classroom, heading to my locker. I heard someone catch up to me, so I glanced at the person and saw that it was Annabeth, still looking at me with the same expression as before. "I never said bye." She said. I looked down at my worn black Chuck Taylors, which had a hole from all of the skate tricks I do and had silver ducktape on the inside where the hole was so I don't make a hole in my socks. The laces also had silver ducktape where it was getting detached.

"Um, so what do you want?" It came out a bit harshly, but I didn't care that much. "I'm curious." She stated. "How come you never show your face? Where do you sit during lunch? Why don't you speak-"

"Look, I really want to go home, it's Friday, I have homework and I don't want to answer your questions." I said as we reached my locker. I grabbed my backpack and my skateboard, swinging my backpack on and closing my locker. "Jeez, I'm just curious." She says and rolls her eyes. "Curiousity killed the cat." I muttered.

"Well, I just want answers. I don't know you, but I'm intrigued by you." She replied. I scoffed slightly. "I'm flattered. I have to go now. Bye." I told her and started to leave. Luckily, she didn't follow me again, but I still looked behind and saw Luke, her boyfriend, talking to her.

I sighed and pushed the doors open, hurriedly speed walking to the sidewalk and started to skate my half an hour ride home.

* * *

Home, for me, is a ratty old apartment in the poor parts of Manhatten, Pizza boxes, Chinese takeout and beer cans littered on the floor, clothes tossed all over the apartment, and a couch that looks like it's 15 years old. It may not sound nice to you, but homes aren't about the state of how it is, it's about the memories you make there.

"Sup Perce." Beck, who's real name his Charles Beckendorf, greeted me. Beck was an African American, and seemed to have a permanent scowl etched on his face. He had unruly brown hair and could be compared to the hulk with all of his muscles, but he wouldn't hurt a fly. He is the oldest in the apartment, being 28.

"Hey Percy!" Will waved at me, his long surfer blonde hair covering his face. He was 26, and was as bright as the sun. He was actually the smartest out of all of us, seeing as he actually passed High School with great grades, almost becoming valedictorian. Albeit, he never went to college.

"Hey." I replied and tossed my backpack. I took off my hoodie and threw my beanie. _Ah,_ I moaned internally. I was sweating from skating for so long and so fast, and I was thirsty. I shook my messy black hair and went to our kitchen. "Where's Lee and Micheal?" I asked, grabbing a Dr. Pepper and sitting on the couch.

"They went to the grocery store to buy some food." Grunted Beck. Lee and Micheal are halfbrothers, Lee being 26 and Micheal being 25. You could tell that they had some of the same facial features, like the nose and the eyes being the most noticible thing they have in common. What they don't have in common is their hair, which Micheal's is black, differing Lee's, which is dark sandy blonde.

You might be wondering why I live with them. To put it simply, I'm in a band with these idiots, and I'm the youngest, as I'm 17. We're called Blue Cherry Coke, and we perform rock songs. I'm the lead guitarist and songwriter (sometimes backup vocalist too), Will sings and writes songs too, Beck's on drums, Lee's the basist and backup vocals, and Micheal is the guitarist/pianoist and backup vocals.

They found me when their other guitarist, John or something, got kicked out becausse he was too into drugs and getting laid. He wasn't very good on the guitar, and only joined the band for the fame. When John got kicked out, he stole all of their money, broke a window, and wrote on their mirror in the bathroom _PAYBACK BITCHEZ_ with a black marker.

Before they found me, I'd been living out on the streets by 14, starved to death, playing my guitar in subways and Central Park, but no one really paid attention, just giving me some money when they could. Then came the day that the guys saw me playing, and took me under their wing. I'd joined their band and started to live with them, finally finding a family ever since my Mom died.

My Mom, I assure you was the greatest person ever. She supported me, she was kind, she never got mad, and she made me blue cookies. She deserved the best, but instead she got stuck with me, a dyslexic kid who always got expelled from school and barely passed classes.

She even married a guy named Gabe Ugliano who smelt like gym shorts that got thrown up on, just so she could have enough money to raise me. And hell, Gabe was _abusive_. He hit my mother and I, stole my money, and wasted it all on poker. So when my Mom died from a heart attack, I ran away. There was no way that I was going to stay with an abusive ass for the rest of my life.

So when I got picked up from the streets by the guys, we weren't just a band, we were a _family_. We relied on eachother, we teased eachother, and we share secrets. They all know my past (after months of picking and prodding until we all sat down on the couch and I told them), and somehow, we got closer. The guys got protective over me, and they knew not to mention anything about it.

Beck's phone started ringing next to me, so I grabbed it and tossed it to him. He grabbed it and answered. "Hey Sil." He said fondly to the phone, a small smile etched on his face. Let me get this clear, Beck has a girlfriend named Silena who he has dated for 6 years, and they were still going strong. They really loved eachother and you could tell just by the way they act.

He finished his conversation with her and placed his phone back in his pocket. "Sil's coming over." He announced. I grunted in response. Silena was nice to all of the guys in the band, and she was also a good friend of mine, as she helps me out sometimes.

The show Friends started on the TV that was in front of us and I smiled. I loved that show, it was extremely funny and reminded me of the friendship I had between the guys.

Soon enough, Lee and Micheal arrived each carrying at least 4 bags of groceries. "Jeez guys, you couldn't 've brought more things?" I teased, but got up to help out. "We decided that with the new money we should waste it on food." Micheal explained as we started placing things the refrigerator.

Micheal and Lee work at music store to pay for food, while Beck and Will work at a skateboard store to pay the rent. With the money that we get at performing at a 21+ bar near here weekly, we use the money to buy other things like clothes. Since we've been attracting quite the crowd at the bar, Hermes, the owner of the bar, decided to give us a raise as we attract a lot of attention to his club.

Just then Silena entered with her key, flashing all of us a million dollar smile and sashaying towards Beck and sitting on his lap. "Hey Charlie!" She greeted him and kissed him. Silena was the only one allowed to call him Charlie, or else Beck would get the hammer that he keeps under his bed in case of an intruder and use it on you.

Beck and Silena kept on kissing for a while, so Will, who was sitting next to them, shouted "PDA!" Beck glared at Will but Will smiled his sunny smile and kept on watching Friends, laughing at all the funny parts.

"So guys." Silena started. "Tomorrow you're going to perform, right?" On Saturdays, we perform at the bar at 9 pm, normally at the time when all of the people who are interested in having a good night come. Now, more people are starting to come for our music, not just for a drink.

"Of course." Micheal calls out before any of us could answer. "Besides, there are now flyers posted telling people to come watch out band. _Flyers_." He exaggerates the last part, but we all understand. When Hermes told us, it was a huge shock. We might get a record deal soon. It's all so exciting but feels so nerve-wracking, because if we do get a record deal, it might mean that we will finally get more people to listen to our music. There's going to be people that can _relate_ to our music. And- okay, it's better if I slow down or else I might go on a full-blown rant.

Silena rolls her eyes, but still has a smile on her face. "You've told me that at least 12 times." She gets off of Beck, who whines but she silences him with a peck on the lips. "What songs are you going to perform?" She grabs some grapes and puts them in a bowl and starts washing them. "We were thinking I Can't Get No Satisfaction, Highway to Hell, Help, For Those About To Rock, and Don't Stop Me Now." I said. Silena finished washing the grapes and sat on Beck's lap again.

"So, Mikey, you're going to play piano for this one?" Silena asks. "Yeah." He says while putting some chicken in the refrigerator. "We're going to go rehearse after Percy's done with his homework." Beck says while stealing a grape from his girlfriend.

"Do I have to?" I whined. "I'm going to take forever." At that moment, I totally did not sound like an 8 year old whining. "Percy, you have to." Beck says. My shoulders sag. "Hey Will could you help me with my homework?" I grab my back pack from where I left it before. "Yeah, sure." He says and gets up. We go to the room that I share with him and Beck, and sit down on my desk.

"So what do you have for homework?" He asks after getting a chair and sitting down. "Calculus and History." Will sighed. "Come on, let's just do this fast so we can rehearse."

* * *

An hour and a half later, we've finished my homework, and we're ready to leave. "Finished!" I enter the living room and throw my fist in the air. "Finally!" Micheal exclaims. "Let me go get the keys." He runs to his room, while I check my wallet to make sure I have my pick, and some extra just in case. Beck grabs his drum sticks and soon Micheal returns with the keys to our car. "Shotgun!" Silena calls, and the rest of the guys groan.

We quickly run downstairs, greeting the neighbors and taking a slight detour by visiting Tyson, a four year old who lives the apartment below us. He's real sweet, but people don't like him that much because he had a cleft lip and is blinded by one eye, allowing him to only see through one. The blinded eye is always facing a different direction, and is the unnatural brown color, but once you get past all that, he's awesome.

We get to our old, white Toyota van that has the initials BCC graffitied on both sides. On the back, it also has a bottle of coke that looks realistic, and it's made by Micheal. He's the artist in our group, and he's amazing at drawing. He even decorated the inside of our van- and our van also looks pretty cool too on the inside.

It's got lyrics to all of our favorite songs written on one sie, it's got Blue Cherry Coke graffitied on the other, and on the back there is a realistic stage with a light shining in one place. There are drawings of Will signing, Beckendorf playing on drums, Lee on bass, Micheal wearing a guitar, and me, also playing the guitar, all haphazardly drawed in the car. It's a real beauty.

We all sit down in the car, Micheal sitting in the driver's seat, Silena claiming shotgun as she said before, leaving the rest of us to sit down in the back where our instruments were. There were no seats in the back as we took them out so we could keep our instruments there.

Lee got some beers out of the cooler and tossed some to Beck, Silena, himself and I. I know I shouldn't be drinking and all of those things, but I'm under adult supervision and I've never gotten drunk before. I normally have some beer on Fridays and Saturdays, so I'll drink a maximum of 2 a week. Plus I drink slowly, in small sips, and I actually quite like it. I don't do it because it makes me look cool, but I drink it to enjoy it.

I take a sip and brace myself for the speedbump I know is coming. We jump but no one really minds as we always take this path to get to the abandoned warehouse that we practice in always. We talk for the rest of the ride, until we arrive at our destination. We get our instruments and smile.

We enter the warehouse energized for practise. The warehouse is pretty much a small warehouse that was abandoned in the 90's. There was once before a restaurant there, but it was unsuccessful and the owners had left, leaving it for perfect use. It had a kitchen, a bar, and some tables that have chairs stacked on top of them. We went to the corner where there was a trapdoor leading to the basement where we practiced. Once we were all down in the basement, I looked around and smiled at the decorated basement.

We painted it red, with small lights adorning the walls. There are crates that were all pushed in a corner of the room, though we did use some to make desks and chairs. We had a bulletin board and two folders where we had songs, either finished or unfinished. Micheal had taken the time to create a bookcase where we kept books or poem books where we get inspired, and we have a sweet vinyl player and a mirror for Silena, who's practically apart of the band almost.

We set up our equipment and prepare to practice as Beck counts to start. I breathe in, close my eyes, bite my lip and wait for Beck to finish counting. I open my eyes on 2, prepare my stance on 3, and smirk on 4. Then we rock.

* * *

After three hours of non-stop practice, we're sweating, Beck's managed to break another pair of drumsticks, and Lee needs a new bass string, which we fix immediatley because we have extra strings. I'm drained, and I really want to go to sleep right now, even if it's only 10 at night.

"You guys did great." Silena compliments us with a fond smile. She hugs Beck and helps him put his drums back in his case. I look at my blue and black electric Gibson guitar, which I have named Sally to honour my Mom. I put it back in it's case and we start to leave.

When we get back to the van, it takes us a moment to store all of our instruments, seeing as we have alot of things. As soon as we get in the car, we take out the beer that we didn't finish drinking and start to finish it now.

Lee raises his beer. "Cheers for another great practice." We all whoop and raise our beers too, clinking them and drinking them. "Tomorrow, we are going to rock the casbah!" He says, quoting a song from The Clash. We all laugh at his joke. "We are going to do it!" I say and we all whoop loudly, excitement in our veins.

"We will rock, until we can't rock anymore!" Beck exclaims, and that sends us whooping again. Suddenly I got an idea for a new song. "Guys!" I grinned at them. "New song idea!" I exclaim. They all smile and we brace ourselves for another bump. "Well the sing it then!" Silena encourages me and the guys agree. "Yeah, come on!" Micheal shouts. "Okay, okay." I smile.

I start stomping my feet twice, then I clap once. Stomp twice, clap once. I get a beat going and soon everyone's starting to do it with me. " _We will we will rock you._ " I sing. " _We will we will rock you_." I repeat, and soon everyone's singing it. I raise my hand telling them to stop singing for a moment, but continue with the beat.

" _Buddy your a boy make a big noise_

 _Playin' in the street gonna be a big man some day_

 _You got mud on yo face_

 _You big disgrace_

 _Kickin your can all over the place_

 _Singin'_ " I gestured them to sing and they started singing again. I stopped the beat and pretty soon they stopped. There was chorus full of 'yeah's and 'that was amazing!' filled the car and I blushed. "No biggie." I muttered and started writing the rest in my small, notebook that I keep in my pocket always just in case inspiration strikes, like now.

I looked up and smiled. I was so glad that these guys found me.

* * *

 **That's it for now! I've been writing for four hours and it's two am and tomorrow I have a hockey game but oh well. It's worth it if it means writing.**

 **Thanks for your patience and attention!**

 **~Fanficgirl357**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey guys! I have no idea how I am awake, because I got like 2 hours of sleep last night and I'm feeling less tired than I should be, I believe. But I think it's probably the adrenaline before my hockey game.**

 **Anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own any quotes, lyrics, or songs, and I don't own PJO**

* * *

 **Percy Jackson POV**

"Ow!" I said and almost squirmed. "Kid, don't move." I heard Micheal say behind me. "I'm almost finished." He was tattooing a set of wings on my back that I requested. He surprisingly has a permit and a tatto machine that almost no one knew about.

I grit my teeth trying to not groan in pain and try to stay as still as possible with a needle digging into my back. "There." Micheal said after finishing the final touches. "Okay, so third tattoo finished. What else?" He asked. I showed him the words that I wanted to tattoo on my body too.

"That one, I think it would go better on your collarbone, right next to that scar that you have." I nodded and sat back down, Micheal preparing himself again and starting to write ' **We live with the scars we choose** ' in cursive. I'd gotten another tattoo on my right forearm that reads **SPQR** and above it a replica of my guitar. I also have a Coca Cola can on my right hip that all the members of the band have on different parts of their body. We all have **SPQR** written on our wrist too, with the instrument of our choice above.

After twenty minutes had passed, I was ready for my fourth and second to last tattoo that I wanted on my right rib cage, ' **I started fuckin' running, just as soon as my feet touched the ground** ' it read.

Finally, after a lot of wincing and groaning I got my last tattoo, which Micheal wrote on my left pectoral. It read, ' **I won't fade away, be forgotten, or just cast away from this life is mine to live, I won't fade away, I'm lost in this endless haze of life, but this life is mine to live**.' It was my favorite out of all of them.

"...And we're done!" Micheal exclaims once he finishes and he starts to clean the areas where I got my tattoos with a wet towel. After he cleaned it, he wrapped almost my entire upper body in a gauze. "I'm not a mummy." I told him, which he just laughed at. "Whatever. So, for the tattoos to heal, you're going to have to keep the gauze on for the first twenty hours, but you will have to change it a couple times seeing as it starts to bleed sometimes. You'll also form scabs there sometimes, but don't remove them. Gently wash the area with mild soap, and dab on this-" He tossed me a small bottle with lotion. "when you're done cleaning. And, keep the gauze on for at least a week."

"Also, since your scabs are going to be well formed, they will be just beginning to peel off, but do not peel it off yourself. Let it come off naturally. This'll last one week too." He pat my bandages.

"After that, you skin might be mildly tender or dry, and your tattoo won't look as vibrant as before. But don't worry, its just deadskin obscuring the view. Soon, it'll come off and your tattoo will look amazing, like Beck's." He points at Beck who is lifting weights. Beck has his shirt off, showing off his huge muscles (seriously, it's like he's Ben from the Fantastic Four). He has roses on his chest, on the left pectoral and on the right, and right in the middle, he has **SILENA** written in cursive.

We hear Beck grunting as he lifts the weights, and soon I've put a shirt on and went and sat on the sit-ups bench that we had, and I started doing 5 series of 30 crunches, then 5 series of 30 sit-ups. After I was done with that, I grabbed a rope that Will had tossed haphazardly near the couch, where he sat watching TV while the rest of us- not including Micheal- were working out.

I set up a timer on my phone to jump for 5 minutes straight- If I trip, I start all over again. After 10 minutes of doing this, I went to our next 'station' and grabbed some weights and started doing lunges with weights in my hands, doing it for another 5 minutes. After that, Micheal joined and he started doing crunches, while I went and waited for Lee to stop using the chin-up bar that we had put in the door frame of our room. After he finished he pat my back, which made me wince a bit as he hit my tattoo.

I grabbed the bar and started lifting for 3 minutes, leaving me with sore arms and very tired as I had the less muscle in my arms out of all of us. I was sweating profusedly when I finished, and was about to go the next station when Silena entered our apartment. "Hell- Oh!" She gasped at the smell of our apartment and she plugged her nose. "Do you guys even shower?" She complained. We looked at eachother and shrugged. She rolled her eyes and sighed in frustration.

"I want you all to shower and clean up!" She demanded, and we stared at her like we were idiots. "Well? Come on!" Silena demanded again and Beck started to put away the weights, which sparked us to do that to. We all packed everything and put in in boxes in our rooms. Once we finished, Beck sprinted to our shower. "I call first!" He exclaims and closes the door. The guys and I groan while Silena sits down on the couch happily.

We start to clean the apartment, opening the windows, throwing away pizza boxes until Beck comes out 10 minutes later. Micheal sees him first and races to the shower yelling, "Suckers!" And closing the door.

Silena looks at her phone and her eyes widened. "Guys, you have to perform in an hour! Hurry up!" She says and drags Beck to our room. We hear Silena opening a closet, and it wasn't until 5 minutes later that Micheal got out of the shower. Will races there and Lee and I are the last ones left to shower. We glance at eachother. "Let's settle this like the men we are." I nod, and we glare at eachother. I roll up my sleeves, never breaking contact.

"Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!" I'd chosen rock and Lee chose paper. I groaned and Lee whooped. We finished cleaning pretty soon and sprayed Febreeze around until Will got out the shower. Lee started walking smugly to the shower so I flipped him off, even though he couldn't see me.

Meanwhile I went to our room and grabbed the clothes that I was going to use ignoring Beck and Silena's make out session. I got out some black converse that I use for gigs, a grey long sleeve shirt, a hoodie that I don't wear to school that says **THE BEATLES** on the front, and some nice jeans that don't have any holes in them. I also grabbed some chains that I use sometimes to hook them on my jeans.

After Lee came out and I showered, we were all ready to go. We all piled in The Van again (Silena called shotgun again and Beck was driving this time), and we immediatley started talking about the show. We had 20 minutes to get there, which was good as it is a 15 minute drive to the bar. "Okay guys, what songs are we going to do?" I asked.

"Well, I don't want to do help all that much." Will somehow brightly said it. There was a lot of shrugs in the car. "Well, we could not sing it, but how long would the gig be then?" Lee asked. "Well, seeing as all of the songs that we are going to perform now are an estimated amount of 4 minutes each, I'd say 16 minutes." I sighed. "Well, that is enough, seeing as we normally do 15 minute performances." I waited for them to reply. "Yeah, but like Hermes said, what if we get a big crowd?" Beck argued.

"How about this," Silena started "If there is a big crowd, play Help. If it is only a slightly bigger crowd than normal, then don't sing Help." Micheal shrugged. "That is a pretty good solution. What do you guys think." I shrugged indifferently. I only want to appease the crowd, and hopefully they get our songs stuck in their heads. "'Kay, so we play Help only if there is a big crowd." We all nodded when Micheal asked. "'Kay." He accepted.

Pretty soon Will took out a water bottle from the cooler and started to drink it and excersise his mouth. Soon we were all started to yell out nonsense to excersise our vocals, and the anxiousness started to fill the car as always before we perfom. I started to play the notes of an imaginary guitar and singing a bit until we got to the bar.

* * *

We ended up singing Help in the end, once we noticed the crowd. The bar, was full. There was only one table that didn't have someone sitting there. Hell, even some of the waiters were stopping when we played a song.

It was so awesome to see people singing along to the lyrics, dancing around, and shouting. The crowd was a great crowd; the best I've seen yet. They were respectful and would shout when Will told them too, and when we had to leave they whined and asked for one more song. We couldn't say no, even though we had already finished the playlist.

"Perce, the song the you invented yesterday." He demanded. My eyes widened. "Dude." I hissed. "It's short and you probably won't remember it." I told him but Will stubbornly insisted. I sighed and gave him the lyrics.

I went over to the rest of the guys. "Guys, we're going to sing the song that I invented yesterday." I whispered and their eyes widened. "We didn't even practice that song!" Hissed Beck. I sighed again. "Look, it's a simple beat, and there is no bass, guitar, or any complicated drum solos. All you need to do is stomp your feet twice and clap." I told them. They all sighed and met eachothers eyes, as if saying _we're doomed._ I chose to ignore that.

"Okay guys." Will said with a dazzling smile into the microphone. "We're going to play another song, but it's the last one." The crowd whined a bit still. Will chuckled at them. "I need your guys' help on this one." The crowd roared in excitement. I noticed Hermes sitting down at the bar looking delighted at the amount of people in his bar.

"I want you guys to do a simple beat." Will continued, then stomped twice and clapped afterwards. The crowd did it but without much coordination. "Thats good- just with more coordination when we start, okay?" A few people in the crowd called out 'Yeah' or 'Sure'. "When Beck-" He pointed at Beck, "counts down to start, immediatley start with the beat. Will smiled and took a deep breath. He looked at the lyrics once more and nodded to himself. He sent a thumbs up sign at Beck, and we all got prepared.

"One, two, one two three four!" Yelled Beck and everyone started to stomp and clap, minus Beck who would hit the bass drum twice then clap. So far so good, everyone was coordinated and the beat was loud. Then Will stopped stomping and clapping to start singing.

 _Buddy you're a boy make a big noise_

 _Playin' in the street gonna be a big man some day_

Will was grabbing the wire that connected the microphone to the amp and was in a feminine, almost sassy kind of stance and was bouncing his heel.

 _You got mud on yo' face_  
 _You big disgrace_  
 _Kickin' your can all over the place_  
 _Singin'_

 _ **WE WILL, WE WILL ROCK YOU** _ Micheal, Lee, Beck, Will and I sang.

 _(Sing it)_

 ** _WE WILL, WE WILL ROCK YOU_** This time some people in the crowd joined.

 _Buddy you're a young man hard man_  
 _Shoutin' in the street gonna take on the world some day_  
 _You got blood on yo' face_  
 _You big disgrace_  
 _Wavin' your banner all over the place_

 ** _WE WILL, WE WILL ROCK YOU_** Almost everyone in the crowd sang.

 _(Sing It)_

 ** _WE WILL, WE WILL ROCK YOU_** Now everyone sang with us.

 _Buddy you're an old man poor man_  
 _Pleadin' with your eyes gonna make you some peace some day_  
 _You got mud on your face_  
 _Big disgrace_  
 _Somebody better put you back into your place_

 ** _WE WILL, WE WILL ROCK YOU_**

"Dude do a solo." I heard Lee whisper but with a smile on his face so the crowd wouldn't notice anything wrong.

 _(Sing it)_

 ** _WE WILL, WE WILL ROCK YOU_**

"I don't magically do them in an instant, it takes hours!" I hissed. "Just do it." Lee whispered fast and I started to prepare myself.

 _(Everybody)_

 ** _WE WILL, WE WILL ROCK YOU_**

 ** _WE WILL, WE WILL ROCK YOU_**

I started my solo immediatley while the all the guys minus Lee looked at me in shock. "Percy Jackson everybody!" Will presented as if everything was going according to plan. I was pretty much feeling my guitar and was suddenly very aware of how the strings felt like against my fingers. I played some notes that hopefully sounded good with the song and followed the beat a bit. I hit a particularly loud note that sounded great and then I kept playing it until I decided that I should stop before the solo started to sound obnoxious. Everyone stopped pounding once I stopped.

The crowd started roaring so loud that I thought my ear drums might burst but I didn't care because I was proud and I was smiling hugely. The guys and I formed a horizontal line and bowed twice. The crowd was clapping so loudly that I was wondering if their hands hurt by now.

We grabbed our instruments and started putting them back in there cases and the crowd's claps were starting to fade away. I was in high spirits as I helped beck store his drum set and helped him carry it.

We got off stage and went to the only booth that was unoccupied; The Booth. It was our special, reserved booth which no one else but us (and guests of our choice) could sit there. It had the words **BLUE CHERRY COKE** carved on the table of the booth by Beck's swiss army knife. It also had our names carved on it, and even a heart that had Beck's and Silena's name carved inside of it. We also carved in the names of the songs that we made that were the most liked by the crowd tonight.

Silena was already waiting there for us and gave us a huge hug. "You guys were great!" Silena said then slapped each of us on the back our heads. "Hey!" Beck whined and hugged her when she hit him. She rolled her eyes but hugged him then let go. "That was for playing a song that we hadn't even practiced, hell Will had to read the lyrics before playing it!" She crossed her arms and started tapping her foot. "I expect that you all have learned your lesson." She said in her strict tone. "Yes Silena." We all chorused.

She beamed and sat down at The Booth. "Come on now. We need to celebrate!" She patted the space next to her which Beck immediatley filled. I sat down next to Beck while Will, Micheal, and Lee sat on the other side.

"First of all Percy, how the hell did you make that amazing solo? You did it on the spot, and it seemed like you felt it!" Will asked amazed. "Yeah you were barely looking at your guitar too!" Micheal agreed and I blushed and started rubbing my neck. "It's no big deal." I muttered and started looking down. I heard Lee scoff and on instinct I looked up at him. "Don't deny it. You are great at the guitar." He firmly said. The rest agreed and I started to blush even more. "Th-thanks guys you're all great too when playing." I stuttered

Just in time the waitress came over with what we usually eat here. "Thanks!" I called after her when she was leaving. "Your welcome!" She called back and then suddenly Hermes walked over to us and grabbed a chair to sit down.

"You guys did great!" He exclaimed. "So many people came and now everyone is busy." He said. "Now, I'm going to get straight to the point: A college near here is throwing a very boring event and a little birdie told me that most people are going to ditch and come over here on Friday. I want you to perfom for at least twenty minutes, if you can." He said in his business mode. "I'll give you guys some more money if you do." He bargained.

Beck rolled his eyes. "We were going to say yes anyways." I scrunched my eyebrows in worry. "But at what time? I get out of school at 3." Hermes sighed. "It's at 5." He said. "But the school's like an hour away from here!" Micheal argued. "Then you guys pick me up at 3 on the dot." I said. Beck shrugged. "I guess we could do that." Hermes smiled. "Great! Also, I had an idea. Since more people have started to come to watch your shows, I'm going to start to sell tickets." I swear my eyebrows reached my hairline.

"Like a concert?" I asked stupidly. Micheal rolled his eyes. "Yes, like a concert Percy." I gulped. "So, on Saturdays like always?" Lee asked. "Yes. I'll give you a raise since this'll earn us more money." Hermes excitedly said. Then he smirked for some reason.

"Follow me. It's about time that I show you this." He got up and after we all exchanged glances we started to follow him. We passed through the crowd and went near the kitchen, but instead od going there we took a left and went down a dark hallway. At the end of the hallway, there was a black door. Hermes got out a key and unlocked the door. He entered the room and we followed.

The room was small, and had a grey carpet floor. The walls were painted an astounding white, and there were 7 professional makeup mirrors with lights, with a desk under each. There were also dress racks, a long black leather sofa, a keyboard, a toy drum set, and a rack for guitars, which had an acoustic guitar already .

Silena gasped. "Oh my god!' She squealed. She went over to the mirrors. "These cost alot, how did you even buy them?" Silena asked dubiously. Hermes grinned. "This used to be a jazz bar before I bought it, and performers would use these." He pointed at them. "I got them for free." He grinned.

"Since you guys are going to start doing concerts here, I thought I'd lend you this room so you can practice before performing." He sat down on the leather couch. Beck went to the black toy drum set with his drumsticks. Instead of being a complete drum set, it only had the mid tom, high tom, bass drum, snare drum, the crash cymbal, and the ride cymbal.

Beck played a simple beat. When he finished, he shrugged. "Not the best and I have to hit the drums softer so it won't break." He stood up and put the drumsticks in his back pocket. "Did you pay for this?" Beck asked. Hermes nodded. "Yeah. I bought it in a garage sale, along with the keyboard, and the guitar rack." Micheal went over to the keyboard and played a C major. "Cool." Micheal said and started playing Don't Stop Me Now. "Yeah, it's really good."

Will went over to Micheal and waited a moment. _"I feel alive,"_ He sang " _And the world, I'll turn it inside out, yeah._ " Micheal stopped abruptly right when Will was singing the next line. " _I'm floating around-_ " Will stopped singing once he noticed that Micheal wasn't playing anymore and bumped Micheal's shoulder. "Hey, I was singing." Will complained. We all chuckled at Will.

"Hermes we owe you." I told him. He grinned. "Don't worry, you guys don't owe me anything. It's just a small thank you for attracting so many people to this bar." i went over and grabbed the acoustic guitar. It was a Taylor GS Mini Guitar. "Hermes, this costs 500 dollars..." I trailed off. He shrugged indifferently. "I won it in a giveaway 2 years ago."

Silena sat down on the couch. "If I'm correct, that's a dress rack, right?" She pointed at the dress rack. Hermes nodded. "Yes. It's for outfits that you might want to use for shows." Silena started grinning mischeviously. "That's perfect." She looked at us and winked. "I'll make sure to dress you up nice and good."

Beck gulped. "Babe..." He sat down and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "I know you want to be a fashion designer and all, but what if the clothes cost too much money?" Silena's sly grin didn't falter. "A true fashion designer knows how to make clothes with any resource." She said. "But you'll have to buy some clothes at the thrift shop and leave them to me."

"Sure." Beck shrugged. Lee clapped once. "Well, I'm going to go eat my food before it gets cold." He said and started to leave the rest of us started to follow him. "Thanks Hermes." Lee said. "Yeah, thanks." Micheal agreed and pat Hermes shoulder. Soon all of us said our thanks. Hermes grinned. "Your welcome." Hermes left and went back to the kitchen.

We walked over to The Booth and started eating our meals. "Mmm." I moaned while eating my blue hamburger. "I'll never get enough of this." I said. "Mmm." I heard Will agree in front of me. "Demeter and Hestia are the best cooks in the world." Lee said. The rest of us agreed wholeheartedly.

Demeter and Hestia are two sisters that are Hermes' aunts who work here as chefs. They are literally the best cooks you could come across. They're so good that they'll make you wonder if they are professionals because it's nearly impossible to make a hamburger and fries taste so good.

I drank from the beer in front of me. "So." Will started. "Which songs should we play on Friday and Saturday?" Lee wiped his mouth. "Definitely We Will Rock You in both shows." He said. "Yeah." Will agreed. "And we have to sing Hey Jude by The Beatles. It's a classic." Micheal said.

I was about so say something when a waitress that I haven't seen before came over to me. "Aren't you a little... Young to be here in a 21+ bar?" She asked me, staring at me in you're-not-supposed-to-be-here way. I grinned. "Yes I am, but Hermes made an exception." She raised an eyebrow. "How can I trust you?"

"Look, you're obviously new, but you can go and ask Hermes or one of your colleagues." Beck intervened, defending me. "Okay." She said doubtfully and left.

You must be wondering how I am allowed to be at the 21+ bar, even though I'm not 21. You see, ever since we started performing, Hermes made an exception for me and let me play with the band because he decided to give me a chance to play for one month, to see if I was worth it. A month later, we had attracted more people to the bar because of our music and he officialy made me an exception to the 21+ rule.

After the waitress left, we continued discussing about which songs we were going to play, Will and I decided that we had to create at least 1 new song to sing in both shows.

Eventually, we left at around 11:30 to get a good night sleep.

* * *

I walked into music class on Tuesday afternoon, glad that this was the last of the day. I sat down next to the new kid, Leo Valdez. His leg was bouncing up and down and he was smiling a little crazily. The guy had even more ADHD than me, I swear, and he always had something in his hands. For example, right now he had a screw driver for some reason.

"Hello Shady Guy! Would you like to join Team Leo?" He asked me. "I'm making T-shirts!" He exclaimed. "No thanks." I grunted. "And it's Percy." I added. Before he could retort, the music teacher, Mr. Cox who was awesome by the way, entered the room. "Hello students! Please take a seat." He said. Just in time, the bell rang and the door opened.

Annabeth, Piper, and Thalia all entered. They were bestfriends since they were 7 or something. "Sorry we're late!" Annabeth exclaimed. Mr. Cox chuckled. "No worries! It's not like I'm going to write you down for arriving not even a second late." Annabeth's tensed shoulders loosened. "Thanks." She said and they all sat down.

"Today class, we're going to test your creativity. I want you all to get in pairs or trios and make a beat. It can be simple, it can be complex, but you can't copy a song. Alright?" He asked. "Yeah." Some people replied. Mr. Cox clasped his hand together. "Start!" He said and pretty much everyone were already in pairs and trios. Leo and I were alone.

I sighed. "Do you want to be with me?" Leo grinned. "Sure Shady Guy." I sighed again and pinched the bridge pf my nose. "It's Percy." I went over immediatley to the guitar rack and grabbed an acoustic guitar. I walked over to Leo and started to strum random chords to see if it was tuned. Lucky for me, it was. "Kay." I said and started playing random chords again. Only this time I closed my eyes and feeled the chords. After about 5 minutes, I got a steady rhythm.

I opened my eyes and saw Leo frown. "How about this." He said and played the same notes just with more technique. "Yeah." I nodded. I grabbed the guitar and gave the rifts a more steady rhythm. "That's it." Leo said and grabbed the guitar back and changed a couple notes. The beat was starting to sound better and better. "Alright." I snatched the guitar back. I started playing it and added a sadder rhythm. I continued the song and added more chords.

The sad rhythm of the song was starting to remind me of my mother, who despite being the best person ever, had the worst luck ever. She got hurt so many times, each time by different people. Her uncle, Gabe, my _father_. My father had split the second he was told that my mother was pregnant. My father is/was rich, and he perfectly could've left my mom some money to raise me. Instead, he _had_ to just leave without giving her any money and letting her raise me on her own. Such a coward. So _selfish_. _I hope you had the time of your life._

I grabbed my song notebook out of my pocket and started writing down lyrics and the notes that we were playing." _Another turning point a fork stuck in the road_." I sang lowly, so only Leo could hear it. I stopped the beat and wrote down the lyrics. "You sing?" I heard Leo ask incredulously. I shrugged. "Yeah. I guess you could say that."

"What's the song about?" Leo asked. "It's very sarcastic." I said and wrote the next couple lines. _Time grabs you by the wrist directs you where to go_. I didn't want to tell him about my dad. _So make the best of this test and don't ask why_.

I started playing the guitar again and started singing the song. _"It's not a question but a lesson learned in time. It's something unpredictable, but in the end is right. I hope you had the time of your life."_ I wrote the next lines in my song book.

"Good Riddance." Leo mumbled. "What?" He looked up at me. "Good Riddance. That should be the name of the song." I nodded and wrote that down. " _So take the photographs and still frames in your mind._ " Leo said, after 2 minutes when I couldn't come up with something. "And change a bit the rhythm of the song there." Leo said and snatched the guitar and started playing some different chords but it had the same rhythm

Mr. Cox came over to us and saw that we were pretty much making a song. "Wow!" He said once he took a look at the notes and lyrics. "Your pretty much making a song." He said. "Here." He handed me his acoustic guitar. "Play it." He almost demanded. "Um, Mr Cox? Can we not sing the lyrics?" I questioned. "Sure." He grinned.

I looked at Leo and saw him staring at the other students, who weren't working anymore and looking at us. The room was deathly silent, which was weird for a music classroom.

Leo maniacly grinned. "They're all staring at me cause I'm so hot." He whispered to me. I rolled my eyes. "Whatever, let's just play." I counted down and we started playing the song.

When we finished what we had so far, everyone was looking at us dubiously. Then Mr. Cox patted us both on the back. "Great job guys." He complimented us. "How'd you do it?" I tugged on my hoodie. "Well-"

"With our awesomeness, of course." Leo interrupted me. I looked at him and saw that he had the same delirious grin plastered on his face. I sighed and decided to leave him be.

Mr. Cox shrugged. "Okay." He turned to the rest of the class. "Pick up your jaws and continue your work!" Mr. Cox slyly exclaimed. The class got flustered and continued with their work. Leo and I continued with the song, changing some chords, and adding more lyrics and perfecting them.

When the bell rang signaling that it was the end of the day, I sighed in dissapointment, because we didn't finish the song. Leo began to stand up and collecting his things. "Leo, want to finish the song sometime?" Leo grinned. "'Course. I'm free this Friday, what about you?" I tugged on my hoodie. "I can't."

Leo frowned. "Why?"

"Er... I'm busy."

"There is nothing more important than me." He sassily flipped his hair and grinned.

"It's, um really a really big event, but I can bring you with me." I cursed myself internally. He grinned again.

"But you'll have to bolt out of your last class as soon as you hear the bell ring, and meet me outside."

"Sure. Where's the place?" I winced.

"Um, it's er, a- I'll tell you later." I told him.

"Fine with me. Bye Shady Guy!" He said. I sighed and grabbed my things. Once I was leaving I noticed a brown _Sharpie_ on the floor. It said _Annabeth Chase_ in neat, feminine writing. I sighed and looked around.

Sure enough, I saw the owner herself speaking to Mr. Cox. I went over to her and tapped her on the shoulder. "You dropped this." She grabbed it and put it in her pencil case. I sighed and left the class without saying goodbye.

I walked towards my locker and opened it. "Once again, you didn't say goodbye." I took out my skateboard and backpack and closed my locker to see Annabeth leaning on the locker next to me. "What do you want?" I sort of harshly asked. "Answers." She said simply. "Go bother someone else."

She ignored my last comment. "You can't just create a song like that without experience."

"Well, I just did. Deal with it." I started to head towards the exit. "Who was the song dedicated to?" She asked. I stiffened. "None of your business." I snapped. "So it _is_ dedicated to someone." She figured out. I silently cursed myself. I pushed open the door to leave the building. "No it's not." I denied. "Yes it is." She argued. "No it's not." I stubbornly said. "Yes it is." I stopped walking and faced her. "No it's not." I argued.

"Yes it is."

"No it's not."

"Yes it is." I realized that we probably looked like first graders arguing. I rolled my eyes even though she couldn't see me. "Sure it is." I said sarcastically. Before she could retort, her boyfriend Luke came over. "Hey." He said to his girlfriend and kissed her for a little bit too long. I coughed awkwardly, and they pulled apart. Luke put his arm around her waist.

"I'm Luke." He extended his hand out and I took it. "Percy." I said vaguely. Luke pursed his lips and turned back to Annabeth and started to pull on her blonde princess curls. "Tomorrow the band and I are going to perfom in the assembly." He told her. He was starting to ignore me. "Cool." I heard Annabeth say. I tugged on my hoodie. "I'll just go now." I mumbled and stepped on my skateboard.

"Bye Percy." Annabeth said abruptly. I awkwardly waved. "Bye." I started skating away.

* * *

When I entered the apartment, I immediately took of my backpack and hoodie, and I threw my beanie in a corner. I went over to the fridge and got a Crush.

I noticed that Will had already arrived, and he was eating a bag or Doritos and a Red Bull, doing this positively beaming for some reason. He was sitting down on the couch and was watching TV.

"Hey Will." I greeted him and sat down next to him. "Hey Perce!" He said extra brightly. I chuckled and took a sip from my Crush. "Where's Beck?" I asked. "On a date with Silena." Yet again he answered brightly.

"You're beaming today. Any reason why?" I asked. Will started to blush. "Well, there's this guy that I met in the music store... and I got his number!" Will almost squealed. "He had to-die-for brown eyes, shaggy black hair that was so tempting to run my hands through... He was just perfect." Will sighed. "I'm going on a date with him too." Will said and changed the channel.

"What's his name?" I asked. "Nico." He said and drank some Red Bull. I stole some of his Doritos. "So, are you going on a date with him?" I asked. Will nodded. "Yep."

"By the way." I started. "I'm going to invite a friend to assist us on Friday." Will turned serious. "You sure?" He asked. I nodded. "Yeah. He's helping me out with a song." Will smiled. "New song?" I nodded again. "Yeah, it's called Good Riddance. Here." I got out my song notebook from my pocket and showed him the song.

" _It's something unpredictable, but in the end is right. I hope you had time of your life_." I sang. Will grinned. "You sing it. You have the perfect voice for it." I frowned. "But-"

"No buts." Will interrupted me. "I'll admit that I can carry a tune, though-"

"No buts also means no excuses." I sighed in defeat. "Now go do you homework." Will said. I groaned. "Call me if you need help." I got up from the couch and grabbed my backpack. I dragged my feet across the grey carpet. "Come on Will." I whined. "Nope. Go do your homework." My shoulders slouched and I went into the room I share with Will and Beck. The room beside ours is Micheal's and Lee's.

I unzipped my backpack and took out my homework. I groaned extra loudly and heard Will laugh at me. "Loser." I mumbled teasingly even though he couldn't hear me.

* * *

 **And that's a wrap! The song that Percy and Leo are creating is Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) by Green Day. Thank you for your attention and patience!**

 **~Fanficgirl357**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey guys! Well, let me just tell you that I almost died today! (Not even kidding) Basically, what happened was that I went to Mendoza, Argentina to play field hockey with my club, and on the ride back to our country on the bus, some asshole decided that it would be fun to throw a gigantic rock at the bus. The rock hit the window and completely shattered the window. And it was just my luck that I was sitting next to the targeted window, and if the rock would've gone through the window, it would've nailed my head. Luckily, the rock bounced off of the window so no one got injured**

 **So, cheers to living and a big fuck you to the asshole who threw the rock!**

 **(If you haven't noticed there will be some profanity in this chapter)**

 **Disclaimer: I don't PJO, any songs, companies, or bands mentioned.**

* * *

 **Percy POV**

Today was Friday, the day of the college gig. It was the last period of the day (english) and I was freaking out.

I was tapping my pen extremely fast on my desk and my left leg was bouncing up and down. I kept glancing at the clock every 10 seconds waiting for the day to end. I'd taken my backpack and skateboard out of my locker and had them right next to me so I could bolt when I had to.

Normally, I'm not this nervous, but this gig was different. It was a different age category- we normally performed in front of people who were at least in their late twenties, sometimes even older. Now, we're going to perform in front of people who are just a bit older than me, have more of a modern taste, and they could tell more people about us from their age category.

I looked up at the clock again and noticed that there were 5 minutes left. _Just 300 seconds left,_ I thought. _1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6-_ I felt a paper ball ricochet off my shoulder. I frowned and grabbed the paper ball.

 _You look nervous._ I recognized the handwriting and internally groaned. _And how is that bothering you, Chase?_ I wrote down and tossed the ball at her. I aimed for her shoulder but the ball didn't hit it's target. Okay, it might've landed like three feet away from her. I leaned against my chair and waited for her reply.

I felt the paper ball bounce off my chest and onto my lap. I opened it and read it. _No one is nervous for a Friday afternoon_. _P.S. Nice aim._ I huffed and looked at the clock. I did a double take. One more minute. I gulped and started stuffing my things in my backpack. I completely discarded the paper ball and put my pencil back in my pencil case and stuffed it in my backpack.

I heard the bell ring and I ran towards the door. I pretty much kicked open the door and started running. I almost bumped into many people, always calling a 'Sorry!' over my shoulder (I think I actually did knock someone down).

"Hey!" I saw Annabeth running next to me. "What the hell are you doing?" She shouted at me as I pushed open the doors to the courtyard. I saw Leo already standing there which baffled me a bit.

"Hey Shady Guy!" Leo exclaimed. I didn't even bother to correct him. "Alright, my friends are going to arrive pretty soon." I told him and checked my phone. I'd recently gotten a text from Beck saying. _Be there in 30 seconds! Lee's driving._ "Shit." I cursed under my breath. I heard footsteps behind me and turned around and saw Annabeth.

"First of all, where are you going, second of all, why are you so nervous, third of all, why are you so hasty?" Annabeth glared at me. She tried to look taller than me, but was unsuccessful as she only reached up to my chin.

"Don't ignore me, Princess! I know you wanna join Team Leo." I heard Leo call. I looked at him the same time Annabeth turned around. He was fingering the belt loops of his jeans and was grinning.

Annabeth scoffed. Before she could say anything, a white van with the words **BLUE CHERRY COKE** imrpinted on the sides hazardously driving, with _Victorious_ by Panic! At The Disco blaring through the stereo. The van climbed the curb and haphazardly stopped in front of a lamp post.

The people already out in the courtyard had gone quiet. I looked around and saw that they were staring at the van in shock- though I couldn't blame them, the school staff had sent an email saying that a child molester had recently gotten out of jail and moved into a house near the school, and I guess that they thought that in that van was where the child molester resides.

I glanced at Annabeth and she was also staring at the van in confusion, shock and curiousity (seriously, when is this girl not curious?). I glanced at Leo who was simply staring at the van confused. I grinned and grabbed Leo's suspenders. "Come on." I told him and I dragged him to the van.

I ran down the the stairs of the court yard and yelled, "Lee, you can't fucking drive to save a life!" Beck slid open the door as soon as he heard me say that. Beck grinned down at Leo he was still very confused and a bit angry from me grabbing his suspenders ("Dude, watch out man! These are new bling!"). Beck sidestepped so Leo and I could enter the van. I climbed in and turned around to see Leo standing there.

I rolled my eyes. "Come on." I told him. Leo shook himself out of his daze and entered the van, then gasped.

"Woah." He looked at the drawings around the van and stood there, digesting the scene. I took the opportunity to slide close the van door- but not before meeting Annabeth's eyes outside and seeing her determined expression. I sighed and slid the door close fully.

"Leo, meet Beck-" I pointed at Beck who was currently playing with his drumsticks. "Lee, the guy who can't drive to save a life-" We heard a "Hey!" coming from the front. I chuckled. "You know that you can't drive!" I yelled back. I rolled my eyes playfully even though they couldn't see it. "Micheal, the guy drew pretty much everything-" I pointed at Michael who grunted and waved. "Will-" I pointed at Will who cheerfully waved. "And Silena, who for the record, is Beck's girlfriend." I said and saw Beck scowl at Leo, trying to make himself seem intimidating.

It worked as Leo shrank away from Beck. "We're in a band, not including Silena." I said. Leo's eyes went wide with shock.

"Ho-" Leo couldn't finish his sentence as the van jerked backwards and slid off the curb. "Woah!" I yelled. "Lee, try to not run over someone!"

"Fuck you!" Lee yelled back. I chuckled and sat down on the floor.

"Let me." Michael said a bit egotistically. He stood up and sauntered over to Lee, who was frantically driving. "Lee, pull over before you kill someone."

Lee jerked to a stop once he saw someone crossing the road. Lee honked the horn. "Hey! I'm driving here!" Lee yelled even though the person outside couldn't hear him. The person flipped him off and continued walking.

Lee sighed. "Alright. You drive." He said defeated and got out of the driver's seat. Micheal sat down and started driving.

Admittedly, Michael was the best out of all of us at driving. He started driving when he was 13, seeing at his sister used to get drunk all of the time and didn't know how to drive, and she always called Micheal to come and get her even though Micheal was 13. I know, you must be wondering, _but why couldn't Michael's parents go get her or her friends?_ You see, Micheal's parents were strict and did not approve of getting drunk, and her friends would always be as drunk as her.

"Alright, where are we driving?" Leo asked as he slid down next to me.

I shifted a bit. "At a 21+ bar." I muttered.

Leo's eyes went wide. "Really?" He asked.

I nodded. "Awesome! Do you have a fake ID or something?" He started fidgeting with the straps of his backpack.

"No, I'm just an exception to the rule." I shrugged.

"Cool!" Leo exclaimed.

"Take off you backpack." I told him.

Leo stopped fidgeting with the straps of his backpack. "Right."

As he was taking it off, I decided to take mine off too, along with my hoodie and beanie. As I slid down next to Leo again, I saw Leo's jaw drop. "Dude, if I were gay, I'd totally date you."

I frowned. "Is that supposed to be a compliment?" I asked.

Leo rolled his eyes. "Of course! You're what girls call 'eye-candy.' How come you don't show it off?" He asked.

I hugged my knees. "Personal reasons." I told him.

The truth was, my mom used to say that I looked like my father all the time when she was still alive. I had his dimples, his eyes, his hair, his _state_ of hair. I even have his brooding look. When my mom died, I started hating my father even more. I started blaming my father for my mom's death- if he hadn't left, she would still be alive somehow. Then I was starting to become ashamed of my appearance. I looked like my father- the person who left my mother, who if he had stayed, my mom would've had a better life.

"Personal reasons my ass." I heard Leo snort which snapped me back to reality.

"Anyways," I heard Beck interrupt because he knew that I didn't like talking about why I hid my face. "What's the song that you two are writing?" Beck asked.

I started searching my pockets. "Well-" I couldn't find my song notebook in my pocket. I went over to where I left my backpack and unzipped it. "It's kind of slow, but it's the lyrics that are important to me." I found my notebook and sighed in relief. "It's very sarcastic." I said. "But we're going to have to wait until we're at the bar to play it." I said and zipped up my back pack.

"Why?" Questioned Lee.

"The song is played with an acoustic guitar, and if you haven't noticed we don't have one here." I replied. "But," I started as I grabbed my guitar case and grabbed my guitar. "I can improvise and play it on this only it won't sound as good."

"Go ahead." Lee said. I took a deep breath and started strumming the chords.

When I finished what Leo and I had so far, the van was filled with whoops and whistles. "Now _that's_ a song that we need to finish the gig with!" Will said and the rest of the guys agreed.

"Sure, it's a little slow and not the genre we usually play, but it still rocks!" Lee exclaimed.

Leo frowned. "Wait, what genre do you usually play?" He asked.

"Rock, of course." Beck grunted.

Leo's eyes went wide. "That's awesome! Can I join? I will attract more lady attention to your band." Leo smirked and tugged on his suspenders.

"You could be our towel boy." I told him. The guys and Silena snickered.

Leo flipped his hair. "I'd have to give the towels to all of the girls in the crowd who have fainted from my sexiness."

I smirked. "You sure they didn't faint from your ugliness?" The guys and Silena snickered again.

Before Leo could say anything else, Silena interrupted. "Alright, before this turns into an all out war, how about we discuss which songs you're going to play?"

"All right so we're going to end it off with Good Riddance, start it off with... Heatseeker?" When Will saw us nod, he continued. "After Heatseeker, we could play It's a Hard Life, Hey Jude by The Beatles, For Those About To Rock, We Will Rock You, Dancing Days in that order."

"Yeah, let's do that." I agreed.

"Wait." Leo said beside me. He was deliriously grinning again. I mentally groaned. "I like that title, We Will Rock You. How does the song go?" He asked.

I smirked and started the beat. The guys and Silena joined in, and soon the car was filled with stomps and claps. Leo joined in once he understood the beat, stomping and clapping and he was starting to smile.

" _Buddy you're a boy make a big noise playin' in the street gonna be a big man some day_ " Will started. Leo's jaw dropped.

 _You got mud on yo' face_

 _You big disgrace_

 _Kickin' your can all over the place_

 _Singin'_

 ** _"We Will We Will Rock You"_** Everyone but Leo sang.

" _ **We Will We Will Rock You"**_ This time, Leo joined in the last three words.

Will lifted up his hand and the beat ceased. We started to whoop again. "Goddamn right!" Beck shouted. We whooped again.

"That's a great song!" Leo complimented us.

Lee grinned. "Hey, we don't take credit for it!" Lee raised up his hands. "Percy made it all by himself."

I blushed and rubbed my neck. "Come on, you guys know that you inspired me." I told.

Beck rolled his eyes. "Yeah, just by saying a single sentence and you made the rest yourself." He grinned at me.

"Whatever." I rolled my eyes and started practicing some guitar riffs from our songs.

I heard Leo huff beside me. "You're doing it again!" He exclaimed.

I blinked and glanced at Leo. He was staring at me almost frustratedly. "What?"

Leo rolled his eyes. "That look! That brooding look! Do you know how many girls swoon at brooding guys?"

"Um..." I trailed off and looked at him confused.

Leo stared at me shocked. "I knew you were dense but come on!"

"Leo, don't let it get to his head. We don't want our poor Percy turning into you." Beck interrupted.

Leo smirked. "I'm just acknowledging my hotness." He tugged on his suspenders again and grinned.

Beck opened his mouth but Silena interrupted him. "Would you guys like any sandwiches?" She asked, turning on her seat in the front to stare at us. We nodded and Silena grabbed a cooler. "Alright." She rummaged through the cooler. "We have PB & J, ham and cheese, jelly and cheese, and honey and ham." She said.

Leo tilted his head. "You guys have some weird combinations." He commented.

Lee grabbed a PB and J and pointed it at Will. "Will's the guy who makes those combinations. He's actually a pretty good chef." Lee bit his sandwich after he finished his sentence.

Will, in my opinion, is almost as good as Hestia and Demeter in making food. He's the one who always cooks when we don't have takeout or leftovers. Sometimes he can make these _amazing_ brownies, which are just incredibly mouth-watering especially when it's still warm. (He even makes a special set of brownies for me that's blue.).

Will surprisingly has his own set of classical aprons- the typical _Kiss the Chef_ , _Mr. Good Lookin' is Cookin',_ etc. Silena likes to take advantage of this by making aprons for Will, she even made his favorite one, an apron that has a small arrow pointing upwards, and below it a text that reads: _This is what an awesome CHEF looks like._

"You cook?" Leo asks incredulously to Will.

Will looks a bit offended. "Yeah. So what? A guy can cook too." He huffed.

Leo raises his hands up in the universal stop sign. "I wasn't implying that it isn't a guy thing! I'm just surpised to hear that you can cook. You don't exactly look like the type of person who cooks."

Will looks a bit sheepish. "Er, um, sorry." He mumbles. Will crawls over to the cooler and grabs a beer.

"Could you pass me and Leo one?" I asked him. He doesn't say anything but tosses me two beers. He also tosses two beers to Beck, who with his extra, tossed it to Lee.

"Wait." Leo said. "You drink?" He asked dubiously.

"Yeah." I cracked the beers open and pass one to him. Leo grabs it and stares at it as if he'd just discovered a new mechanic tool. He raises it to his nose and sniffs it.

"This is real beer." He looks at me with doubting eyes. I nod slowly at him, not breaking eye contact as if I were speaking to a 2 year old, which Leo is equivalent to mentally.

"How can you even drink beer? Let me remind you that you're 1 year older than me, not 2!" He practically shouts.

Okay, so Leo is a sophomore, a year below me, but has some classes with me, like Music and Woodshop. Leo excels at Woodshop, being able to create amazing thnigs like helicopters, robots, planes and more. He should be in the senior's Woodshop class, but because he slacks Woodshop so much, he's with us Juniors. He's also pretty great at Music to, but not enough to be with the seniors.

I rolled my eyes at him. "Relax, we're under adult supervision." I said. After a moment, I frowned. "Well, a female adult and manchildren." I commented and took a sip from my beer.

"Hey!" Lee yelled out offended. He was sitting on Beck's drum stool (which was a bad choice since when we reach a speed bump it usually falls down). "I'm smarter than you and I am more responsible than you!" He grinned looking like he had won the argument.

I arched an eyebrow at him "But I am more a lot more handsome than you." I sassed.

"Oooh! Shit's 'bout to get real!" Leo hollered. He took a small sip from his beer and started moving his legs, his eyes wide in anticipation.

I rolled my eyes. "Puh-lease." I scoffed. "We all know who won this argument." Now the rest of the guys 'Ooo'ed. They were ready to see some action, as they had named me Persassy for all of my sass backs.

Lee grinned. "You-" The car bounced up and down as we drove over a speed bump. I watched slowly as Lee made a weird face, bit his tongue, grimace, the stool tip over with Lee on it, until Lee finally fell down, spilling all his beer all over his shirt.

I couldn't help it and started laughing. "Lee!" I then snorted. "You're ridiculous! You know that the stool _always_ falls over when there's a speed bump!" I laughed. The rest of the guys were laughing too. Lee sat up, the spilt beer all over his clothes and in his hair.

"You're cleaning the van once we get home!" Michael shouted at Lee. Michael hates it when we stain the van- it always leaves a horrible smell or sometimes a permanent stain on the grey carpet. (Like the red kool-aid stain right next to the cooler, which hasn't faded for some reason.)

"The entire van?" Lee asked.

"Yes!" Michael holllered. I winced for Lee- the van isn't exactly tidy. Okay, so maybe tidy is an understatement. There are extra guitar picks lyring around, broken drumsticks, detached guitar and bass strings, rotten sandwiches, blue food (that may be my fault), extra clothes, and a whole lot more if I could identify what they were.

Lee shivered. "Does anyone have the heart to volunteer to help me out?"

Beck scoffed, "The last time you asked someone to-" He raised his hands and made quotation marks, "' _help you out'_ , you made them do all of the work." I smirked and chuckled.

"But I'm not gonna do that this time!" Lee justified.

Michael intervened, "You said that last time. And the time before that. And the time before that. And-"

"Alright, alright. I get it." Lee huffed and started slowly peeling off his shirt. "Oh god," He whined. "this is gonna leave a rash."

As we waited for Lee to finish whimpering, I noticed something off about Leo. He was staring at the floor, his fingers drumming a beat on the floor, an almost... Sad energy radiating from him. He had that glazed look in his eyes that Michael has when he talks about his sister before her alcohol addiction, when she was fun and pure.

"You alright?" I whispered as the others conversed.

Leo looked at me sharply, looking like a child that got caught. He then immediately deliriously smiled, as if I had just imagined the miserable aura radiating off of him before.

"What? You think I can't handle this?" He scoffed and pointed at himself.

I blinked. "Nevermind."

* * *

When we arrived at the bar, we noticed that there were extra tables and chairs. We also noticed that the bar was somewhat cleaner than before, and the alcohol had been restocked. The atmosphere was especially weird, as you could practically smell the anxiety. The waiters were all frantically running around, placing more chairs, stools and tables. They all had their full uniforms on (A black bowtie and black slacks if you were a guy, and a black tie and a long black skirt if you were a girl), which was weird since most of the waiters normally had street clothes on normally.

Hestia was cleaning a table near the bar, the only person calm here. She had her hair in a bun with a net around it as always. She looked up and noticed us and smiled. "Hello." She greeted us pleasantly and reached out to hug us.

She hugged me third, and I relished Hestia's hug. Hestia's hugs were just like my mom's, motherly, made me feel loved and made a wave of warmth wash over me. I hugged her waist and rested my head on her shoulder, smelling the familiar scent of wood smoke and toasted marshmellows that she seemed to have. I said, "Hey Aunt Hestia."

She pulled away from me and smiled. Her fire-like brown eyes lit up and the ends of her eyes crinkled. She was 50 years, but still looked 30 and beautiful. "Percy, my dear," I smiled at that bit, "how do you do?" Her kind voice asked.

"Good, good. I made a new friend." I glanced and pointed at Leo who was looking at me like I'd told him that I was pregnant.

Hestia let go of me. "Oh! Well that was it your name, my dear."

"Leo." He stared at her almost timidly.

Hestia smiled and stepped forward to hug him. She hugged his neck, and at first, Leo was surprised. After a second, the shock subsided and he hugged her back and grinned. Hestia pulled away and went to hug the others.

I walked over to Leo. "Is she really your aunt?" He asked after a moment of silence.

I chuckled. "No, but I sure wish she was."

"Me too." He said.

Once Hestia finished greeting and hugging everyone, Silena asked, "If you don't mind, Aunt Hestia, but why is everyone so... Nervous?" She looked around and saw a waitress cleaning a table frantically.

"Ah," Hestia said, a bit of nervousness seeping into her voice. Knowing Hestia, this must be a big deal if she's nervous about it. "Well, an inspector is going to come over to review the bar and see if it should go out of business or not." Hestia said a bit sadly.

"What?!" Almost all of us practically exclaimed after a moment of silence.

"But Cadeceus can't go out of business!" Michael whined.

"Yeah!" Will agreed. "It's amazing, it pays well _and_ attracts a lot of attention!"

Hestia smiled sadly. "Sadly, the attention is what attracted the inspector. Attention doesn't mean only good reviews, but bad reviews too."

"How could this place have bad reviews? It's got amazing food and service!" This time I chimed in.

Hestia sighed and continued scrubbing the table that she was cleaning before. "Percy, we don't exactly have the best sanitation here." She glanced up at me. "You remember the stain on the wall that nobody cleaned because Michael said it looked like a bird and it was a fine piece of art? Well, not many people considered the stain a 'fine piece of art'."

Michael whined, "But it was beautiful!" He then huffed. " _Zero_ consideration for fine art." He grumbled.

Hesita smiled sadly again. "You must go to your practice room, you have 45 minutes before the inspector and the college students arrive to come see you."

Eyes wide, I turned to Leo. "Shit." I cursed. I looked at Hestia then accidently cursed again. "Shit."

"It's okay Percy, I'll let it slip this time." I sighed and nodded thankfully at her.

"Come on." I turned and told the rest. We waved goodbye to Hestia and hurriedly speed walked to the room.

We opened the door and saw Leo stare in awe at the place. "Awesome." He runs and sits on the couch. "Cool! Is this the place where you guys hang out with girls?" He slyly asked.

I rolled my eyes. "The only girl that has gone inside is Silena."

Before we could continue the conversation, Beck interrupts, "Babe." He says and is staring intently at the dress racks that used to be empty but now is full of clothes. "Um, did you bring all of those clothes?"

She grinned and pecked his cheek. "I got the bank to loan me some money." She went over to the rack and picked out some jeans and a shirt. "And of course, I designed them all myself!" She showed him the shirt which said: **TAKEN!** In black cursive, contrasting the white it had for the background. "This is for you and you're going to put it on tonight." She gave him the shirt and jeans.

"When did you get all of this?" Lee asked.

Silena grinned again and picked out another set of clothes. "I bought Beck's clothes on Sunday, Percy's on Monday, your's on Tuesday, Michael's on Wednesday, and Will's on Thursday." She shoved another set of clothes to Lee, Will, Michael and I. "I'll help you get ready after you've all changed." She grinned again and started to leave the room. "Call me when everyone but Charlie is decent!" She yelled over her shoulder and left.

"Charlie?" Leo asked. "Who's Charlie?"

Beck scowled. "I'll tell you later." I intervened before Beck would do something rash. "Come on, let's change."

"I call the couch!" Michael yelled and plopped on the couch.

Beck rolled his eyes. "The couch's big enough to fit all of us." He tossed his things on the couch and took off (wait, more like peeled off because damn, Beck is fuckin' ripped) his shirt.

Leo's eyes went wide. "Woah. Do you do drugs?"

Beck raised his eyebrows at him. Other than working at a skateboard shop, he also fixes cars, motorcycles and trucks so he can get paid extra. "No, I just work out a lot." Beck replied.

"Can I work out with you?" Leo's eyes were wide and pleading, and he was practically begging on his knees.

Beck put on the **TAKEN!** shirt and started to take his pants off. Beck looked at Leo weirdly. "You'd be more of a help with your hands..." Beck glanced at Leo's hands. Leo's hands were veiny, but had noticeble callouses and were long and bony. They barely had any fat on them.

Leo smirked and cracked his knuckles. "Awesome."

I started to take off my shirt to recieve a low whistle from Leo. "What?" I asked him now.

Leo raised his hands to defend himself. "Calm down tiger. I'm complementing you on you're abs and v-line."

I sheepishly smiled. "Thanks, I guess. And er, nice... Hair?" I complemented him.

Leo flipped his hair. "Why thank you."

I looked at the shirt that I was supposed to wear. The shirt that I was supposed to wear was a plain black shirt, though it looked like the v-line had been cut haphazardly with scissors. I shrugged and put on the shirt, noticing that it was sort of loose, which was fine by me. I looked at the grey jeans that I had to put on, which didn't have any rips or anything special on them. I shrugged to myself and put them on, noticing that the jeans were a bit tight.

I started walking over to the guitar rack and grabbed the acoustic guitar. I sat down on the couch next to Leo and took out my song book from my jeans. "Alright, let's finish this song."

* * *

"Scream! Hey! Hey Hey!" Will yelled into the microphone, wearing only a blue denim vest on with no shirt underneath it and some black leggings. We were all sweating, and the crowd was screaming and following Will's orders and people were laughing, having the time of their life.

Will was running around the stage, screaming and shouting with just a little bit left of the song Dancing Days. I was finishing the guitar solo, and Will had everyone in the crowd clapping their hands. Will screamed into the microphone one last time, then stopped right in time when the song finished.

The crowd went wild, yelling and pounding their fists on the tables. Will chuckled into the microphone, "Alright, alright." He started to shush the crowd. "My buddy Percy here-" He pointed at me and grinned. "Will now sing a song for you. So, Perce, the stage is yours!" He yelled and the crowd clapped once more for me.

I blushed and grabbed the acoustic guitar from the guitar rack on the stage, leaving Sally on the rack while Will placed the microphone back on it's stand. I walked over and strummed a few chords. I grinned spoke into the microphone. "As Will said, my name is Percy. I'll be singing you a song to end this-" Cue whining from the crowd. I chuckled. "Don't worry, we play here weekly on Saturdays." The crowd cheered. "Anyways, I wrote this song with my friend, Leo Valdez." I pointed at Leo who bowed from The Booth. "This song is about people who leave your life, and keep in mind that this song is very sarcastic."

"1, 2, 3, 4!" I yelled and started playing the chords.

 _Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road_  
 _Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go_  
 _So make the best of this test, and don't ask why_  
 _It's not a question, but a lesson learned in time_

 _It's something unpredictable, but in the end is right,_  
 _I hope you had the time of your life._

 _So take the photographs, and still frames in your mind_  
 _Hang it on a shelf in good health and good time_  
 _Tattoos and memories and dead skin on trial_  
 _For what it's worth it was worth all the while_

 _It's something unpredictable, but in the end is right,_  
 _I hope you had the time of your life._

At this point, I started to play a solo, the crowd cheering me on.

 _It's something unpredictable, but in the end is right,_  
 _I hope you had the time of your life._

 _It's something unpredictable, but in the end is right,_  
 _I hope you had the time of your life._

I played the final chords slowly, then ended the song with a flick of the wrist.

The crowd was roaring so loud that I thought that maybe a window might break from the noise. I was grinning uncontrollably and looked at Leo who was wearing a proud expression on his face and was clapping extremely hard. He caught my eye and I motioned him to get up on the stage, which he did eagerly. He stood next to me while the rest of the band formed a horizontal line and bowed.

Will walked up to the mic, "Thank you all!" The crowd roared even louder if that was possible. Will grinned. "Make sure to buy tickets over at the front desk if you want to watch the show tomorrow!"

We packed up our things on stage, the crowd getting quieter after some moments. We got off the stage when we finished packing our things, heading to practice room to leave our things there then go over to the booth. We slid into The Booth, Beck, Silena, and I on one side, and Lee, Michael, Leo, and Will on the other.

Silena hugged us once she saw us. "Great job again guys!" She grinned slyly. "Did you all like the clothes that I've given to you?"

Beck grinned and winked at her. "'Course, babe." He crouched down to peck her on the lips then nuzzle her nose. He slipped an arm around shoulders and pulled her close.

I frowned a bit. "I liked the shirt, but the jeans are a bit tight. You sure these are my size?"

Silena rollled her eyes and blew a strand of hair out of her face. "Of course they're not your size!" She giggled and covered her mouth.

"What? You bought the wrong size on purpose?" I stared at her confused.

"Yes-" She saw me try to intervene but quickly continued. "because they show your butt off more."

"Eh, she's got a point." Will said and looked at my butt. "You do have a fine ass." He complimented me.

"You don't have a butt as good as Charlie's or Will's, but it's still a nice butt." Silena said.

The waiter came and gave us all our food, which made Leo frown confused. "I didn't order anything." He said once the waiter left.

Lee shrugged next to him. "Might've been Hestia who cooked it for you." He suggested took a huge bite out of his hamburger. "Mmm." He moaned. "Never gets old." he procceded to eat his hamburger.

Leo grabbed the hamburger which sparked the attention of the rest, The Booth falling silent as we waited to see Leo taste heaven. He lloked at us perplexed as we stared at him as if we were awaiting a bomb to explode. "What?" He asked. "I understand that I am sexy, but you do know a picture lasts longer." He grinned at the end.

Michael rolled his eyes, "Just eat it." Leo shrugged and took a bite out of it. Immediately, we saw Leo's facial expression go from I'm-confused to this-is-the-most-delicious-thing-in-the-world. "Oh my god." Leo moaned. "The feeling of satisfaction I get is just like the one I get from a blowjob."

"Seriously? You just had to say that?" Lee asked and face palmed. "We're eating." He stated matter-of-factly.

Leo shrugged grinned somewhat sheepishly. "Sorry, it's just that this is so damn delicious!" He exclaimed and took another huge bite. I laughed and ate mine.

We were interrupted when a brunette girl came over with hazel eyes and tan skin. "Hello, my name is Amanda." She stated, and took a seat next to me. "So, you play the guitar?" She asked me and started to twirl her hair.

I rubbed my neck. "Yeah, I'm lead."

She grinned at me and stared at me with a look that made me a bit uncomfortable. She traced her fingers across my biceps. "So you're used to taking the lead, huh?" She whispered in my ear.

"Um." I blushed. She was flirting with me and this is the first time I've ever been flirted with. "Well-" I cleared my voice. "yeah, I guess." I said and gulped.

She watched my Adam's apple bob up and down. I didn't exactly want to be flirted with, and I was not looking for one night stands. I looked at the rest pleadingly, hoping that they would notice my discomfort and come to my rescue.

"You know." Amanda said, her fingers now traveling from my biceps to my (thankfully) clothed thigh. Her hand was creeping toward my crotch slowly. "I really like guys who take the lead." She whispered in my ear sensually.

"You know what!" Silena stood up and practically screamed. " _Do not_ flirt with my boyfriend you skank!" I stared up at Silena confused until she glanced at me with a look in here eyes saying _Play along._ I gulped as I watched Amanda's face slowly go from shock to anger slowly.

"Excuse me, what did you say?!" Amanda was starting to stand up and her face was slowly filling with frustration.

Silena looked at Amanda with incredulousness on her face. "Are you deaf? I just told you to stop flirting with my boyfriend you skank!" It was that moment that I decided that Silena deserves on Oscar for acting.

Amanda rolled her eyes and scoffed. "Whatever, bitch! Let's just see who he chooses, huh?" They both turned their heads to me and I immediately pointed at Silena, not wanting to spend more time with Amanda. Amanda huffed and left The Booth.

"You owe me." Silena sat back down and hugged Beck's waist.

"Yeah. Thanks, by the way." I looked at her gratefully. "I don't think I could've lasted a second longer with her."

Silena shrugged. "You're welcome."

* * *

 **Annabeth POV**

"Thalia, I need your help." I demanded my bestfriend. She was sitting in the bleachers of our school, watching football practice as we usually did on Fridays. She was wearing her infamous 'Death to Barbie' shirt with her blac leather jacket and ripped jeans. She was what you would call the 'punk' of our group.

Piper was in cheerleeder practice inside the gym, suffering with Drew and her goons. Piper had to attend this practice because there was a football game next Friday, and they had to have their routine ready. If it weren't for that, Piper would've been with us, slacking and watching her boyfriend run around in tight pants.

"What is it." Thalia doesn't normally ask.

"I need to see the files of a certain student." This caught Thalia's attention.

She raised a pierced eyebrow at me. "Which."

"Percy Jackson."

She raised her eyebrows higher, asking me a silent question. Thalia fiddled with one of the many rings on her hands.

"I understand that you might be perplexed, but he's so confusing and won't answer me, and have you heard the rumours about him?" I asked.

Thalia shook her head. "Well, rumour has it apparently that he's bald, blind, been kicked out of a bunch of schools, a delinquent, mentally challenged, and the most recent one, a pedophile."

Thalia once again raised her eyebrows, only this time in amazement. "And you know how much I hate not knowing something."

Thalia thought for a second, then shrugged. "Well, we just have to ask my Dad for the key's to the basement, that's where they leave everyone's files." Her Dad's the principal of the school, so Thalia pretty much has access to anything she wants. Thalia stood up and stretched. "Let's go."

* * *

After sneakily grabbing the key's from Zeus' office (wasn't that hard, he was so concentrated on his work that he barely noticed Thalia come in) we headed to the basement and unlocked tha door. We entered a room that was littered with spiderwebs and from what Thalia said, mice too. There were a bunch of drawers, all placed alphabetically.

It was easy to find the J drawer seeing as everything was organized. It took us some time to find Jackson, though. We kept getting mixed until we discover that it was the first file in the drawer.

We took it out and sat 2 chairs that had been placed there. "Alright." I said. I was nervous, even though I'd never admit it. I looked down at the treacherous file and nodded at Thalia, who nodded back.

I opened the folder and saw the first paper, which showed an nine-year-old Percy smiling lopsided at the camera, a band-aid on his right cheek and extremely messy black hair. He had a cute, little face and had sea green eyes which sparkled.

A smile appeared on my face. "Aw." I cooed. I couldn't help myself. I glanced at Thalia to see her smiling too, even though she was trying to hide it. "I guess he's not bald." She commented.

I nodded. "Okay, so that rumour is false."

I jumped the parent section and immediately went to his description, to see how he was like. _Dyslexic and had ADHD_ \- my eyebrows shot into my hairline. Not exactly mentally challenged, seeing as I have the same things. I was going to keep reading when Thalia nudged me.

"What." I replied rather grumpily.

"Look." She pointed at the parent section of his file and pointed to the slot where his father should be. _UNKNOWN,_ it read.

"Oh god." I gasped. I checked to see if he had a mom, but it said _Sally Jackson:_ _DEAD_.

I checked to see if he was adopted, but all I found was a stepfather by the name _Gabe Ugliano_.

"Isn't Gabe Ugliano arrested for child abuse?" Thalia asked and I nodded slowly, remembering when they showed him on the news.

"What about here." Thalia pointed at the description. "He was expelled out of 8 schools. _8_."

She looked at his description. "Dyslexia and ADHD? He has the same things as you."

"Strangled a snape in preschool? Blowing up the school gym? Blowing up his school bus with a revolutionary war cannon? What the hell, is he a terrorist?" Thalia asked incredulously.

I pointed to a certain part in his description. "It says here that he was accused, but it was false. He was being manipulated by another guy who had kidnapped his mother and told him to do things and he'll get his mom back. He had a gun fight with his boss and ended up winning." I read.

"That's... Intense. Where does he live."

"East Harlem."

"Isn't that place really poor?

"Yes."

There was a momentary pause of silence as we looked at his file. It said that he got bad grades, and that was about it to his file. "Well..." I swallowed. "I most definitely wasn't expecting that."

"Yeah." Thalia said. "It was kind of... sad." She looked up at me. "Are we going to tell anyone about this?" I shook my head.

"Maybe Piper, actually. But no one else." Thalia nodded.

"Okay."

* * *

 **Sorry about Annabeth's POV, I know it was a bit rushed and all, but hard to concentrate when my little sister is vomiting downstairs.**

 **Please review, follow, and favorite!**

 **-TheMistressofSass**


	4. Of Books and Fame

**Hey guys! Nothing very exactly exciting (or terrifying, you choose) has happened in my life for the past few days, except fro the fact that I have a lot of projects due soon and exams, so I'm sorry if I don't have much time to write.**

 **I'm out of school in December for summer vacation, so I'm not sure if you should expect more chapters written or not, because I'm normally always at my cousin's house for vacation.**

 **Oh, and thank you everyone who hoped my little sister felt better, and thank you to all the people who had commented or said sorry that I almost got hit by a rock! Means a lot! (Although no one had to say sorry for something that someone else did, but either way, it's okay).**

 **Suggestions:**

 **WolfEffect:** _I loved it!_ _Great job! I hope you're okay with all the rock-to-the-window thing and that your sister will get well soon! by the way, I think you should make Percy write and sing another sad song, Magic by Coldplay, it's a great song and I think it will fit in well! :D_

 **\- First of all, I'm flattered and thank you second of all, thank you for asking about my sister and to be honest she's doing well, yesterday she was in a really bad mood since she hates being sick though :(. I'll try to get Percy to write Magic by Coldplay, I'm not sure when to write it into the plot line, but hopefully inspiration will strike. Thanks again!**

 **PunksNotDeadYouAre:** _OMG UPDATE SOON! Make Annabeth follow Percy's van to their next performance and see him as HIM OMG THIS STORY IS ADORABLE_

 **\- I had something like this planned already, you mind reader :P. Thank you for the compliment, and you are also adorable!**

 **That was about it for the suggestions of the last chapter.**

 **(By the way Mr. Boring is OOC in this fic)**

* * *

 **Percy POV**

"C+, Mr. Jackson. I'm surprised that you didn't get a D." Mr. Boring whispered to me. He was staring at me almost maliciously, his left eyebrow arched and a smug grin. Boring would always grin smugly when I got a bad grade or I wasn't paying attention and he had called me out on it. His smug grin always showed a little bit of his teeth, as if he were trying to hold back the grin and he was trying to look superior. He turned away and continued giving out papers.

"Not my fault that you're a bore." I impulsively snapped. The class snickered and I immediately started to berate myself when Mr. Boring turned rigid. He turned around to face me with a scowl on his face.

"Detention after school today!" He shouted, spit flying from his mouth. He cleared his throat and adjusted his tie, the scowl starting to fade. "Alright class..." He droned on while I zoned out.

The bell rang and everyone started gathering their things to leave. I sighed, and started gathering my things too, my quiz gliding to the ground. I started to reach for the quiz, but before I could pick it up, I saw a tan hand that were long and thin grab it and hand it to me.

I looked up to thank the person and noticed the stunning grey eyes first. "Thanks," I said to Annabeth. She wasn't looking at me like she did before, she was looking at me more softly for some reason.

"Do you need any help in history?" She asked, as if I were a delicate flower.

I tugged on my hoodie uncomfortably. "No..."

She stared at me as if she didn't believe anything I said. "Alright, I'll just go." She shrugged as if it weren't a big deal and started to leave.

I grabbed her wrist before she could leave. "Fine, I kind of do need help." I sighed and let go of her hand and tugged on my hoodie.

"So, when can you study with me?" She questioned.

"Um, I can do Wednesday and Thursday after school at the library."

She sort of smiled I guess. "Perfect. What subjects do you need help in?"

"Erm, kind of, well, everything." I mumbled, feeling myself blush and all I can do is hope that she doesn't look at my neck.

"Well, great. I'll see you on Wednesday."

She started walking away again and before she left I called, "Wait!"

She stopped and turned around, her high ponytail swaying. "What?"

I tilted my head, "Why are you so ... Nice to me all of a sudden?"

She turned away and hesitated. "No reason." She left and left me in a puddle of confusion.

I walked toward the trashcan to dump my trash, passing the supervisors that were near. The cafeteria was full of teenagers, laughing, singing, talking and eating. I sighed and spotted Annabeth curled up into Luke across the cafeteria, laughing at a joke one of her friends said. I noticed that Piper wasn't curled up next to Jason Grace, her boyfriend, but instead looking around for someone. Odd

I walked out of the cafeteria, almost stepping on someone's lunch. I scowled and continued walking, avoiding a piece of gum that was stuck to the floor, most likely one of the seniors left it there so a freshman would step on it. Poor freshmen.

I pushed open the doors and started to head towards my locker, planning to skip the rest of my classes knowing I only had one class left, Trig, which I absolutely hated. It's better to just spend the rest of my day at a skate-park.

I walked through the hallways of the school until I heard someone get slammed onto the lockers. I went to the right, where I believe I heard the noise and saw two figures, one vigorously punching a scrawny, short guy who was against the lockers, shouting sass backs whenever he could. The bully kept on punching the scrawny kid while I stood there in shock for a few seconds, until finally reacting and running towards them.

"Jelly of my handsome looks?" I heard the victim retort at the bully. I almost froze in shock as I recognized the voice.

Leo.

It only made even more adrenaline rush into my veins as I grabbed the bully's shoulder and pulled him away from Leo and swiped the bully's eyes. The bully yelled and I punched his jaw, disabling him from yelling anymore and pushing him against the lockers and punching a swift uppercut into the bully's stomach. He bent over and I pushed him to the ground. He stood on all fours and coughed violently. I gave him a few seconds before kicking his side, making him fall flat on his stomach and roll onto his back.

My eyebrows shot into my hairline in surprise as I recognized the bully, Jason Grace. I stepped back in shock, before advancing and placing my foot on Jason's foot cage. Jason stopped groaning, looking at me with a bruised left eye and a dislocated jaw. I leaned over and whispered, "Don't touch my friend again, or else." I left the threat hanging and removed my foot from his rib-cage.

I stepped away from Jason again, grabbing Leo's elbow and directing him outside, without saying anything. I could tell he was nervous, by the way he was more fidgety than usual, and he was glancing at my expression every ten seconds. But at the same time he was appeared hurt, not physically, but psychologically.

We stepped into the courtyard where, thankfully, no one was there (It was quite a chilly day and it was cloudy with a light drizzle). "Alright." I let go of Leo's elbow and took off my hoodie and beanie. "I know that you can provoke anyone if you wanted to since you can annoy everyone, but what did you do to get Golden Boy beating you senseless?"

Leo shrugged and raised his hands in front of him. "To be honest, I have no idea!" He exclaimed. "I was heading to eat, when all of a sudden Jason comes in and starts leading me somewhere without saying a word and starts hitting me!"

I blinked. "So you didn't provoke him?"

Leo tugged on his suspenders and sighed. "At least not that I remember." He had a dazed glint in his eyes, as if he were daydreaming about visiting the moon. I knew that look.

I raised my eyebrows. "How long have you known him?" I asked.

Leo stared at me in shock before quickly clearing his expression. "I've only seen him in school!"

I snorted, "Yeah, right. You most definitely didn't look like as if you were betrayed a few seconds ago."

Leo was starting to avoid my gaze, staring into the horizon instead. "Look, let's just not discuss about it right now, okay?"

"Fine." I put my beanie and hoodie back on. "Stay here, okay? I'll be right back."

I went inside and quickly grabbed my skateboard before returning. As I returned to Leo, I went to the hallway where we left Jason at, only to see him holding his head in his hands.

I stared at him for a while, watching him as he shook his head. I debated whether or not if I should go speak to him or leave him there. I started walking towards Jason, and on the last step I hesitated. _He hit Leo, your first friend here_. I clenched my fists and squeezed my eyes shut, before turning around and returning to Leo.

* * *

 **Piper POV**

"Have you seen Jason?" I asked Annabeth for the tenth time.

She rolled her eyes. "No, I haven't Piper. I haven't seen him since the last period I had with him, which was Physics." She stopped when and saw my worried face. "Hey, Piper. I'm sure he's okay, go look for him."

I bit my lip and gathered my things. "Where are you goin', Piper?" Travis Stoll asked me. He was eating the cafeteria food, which was some spaghetti with tomato sauce.

He caused the whole table to turn to me, making me the center of attention. "I need to go study for biology." I lied.

Drew, my half sister and a girl who is a complete bitch shrugged and rolled her eyes. I saw her gossip to one of her goons, making them both giggle and look at me. I rolled my eyes from their obvious backstabbing, and started to leave the cafeteria.

I walked through the halls, trying to find his unique blonde hair and his familiar face. I was starting to get worried until a hallway made me do a double take as I saw a familiar figure curled up with his head in his hands.

I walked over and sat down. "Jason." I whispered softly. There was a moment of silence, making me wonder a million things at once, Is this Jason? Is he okay? What if he left? My thoughts were interrupted when he flung himself at me, burying his face into the crook of my neck and sobbing.

"I'm- I'm so sorry." He kept repeating, squeezing me as if I were his lifeline. I gently wrapped my arms around him and started to rub his back.

"Jason, what happened?" I asked gently. He froze for a second, then from the pulled away from the hug and stared at me. I gasped.

His left eye was swollen and was starting to turn purple, his jaw already had a nasty bruise forming, his normally neat hair was disheveled and his eyes were wet and bluer then ever, which happens when he cries because his contacts have that affect.

I wiped away a tear from his cheek and kissed him. "Oh, Jason. What happened?" I nuzzled his nose and kissed him again. I know that he's vulnerable right no-he's been very stressed out the last couple days.

"He-he was just walking there and I just _know_ that I know him but I can't remember him and it's all his fault and I've been stressed out-" I kissed him again, interrupting him.

"Jason, calm down, take a deep breath, and explain to me.", I said gently, but sternly. Jason inhaled deeply and exhaled raucously, before starting to explain.

"You know that kid, Leo Valdez?"

I stroked Jason's cheek. "Yeah? What about him?"

Jason huffed in frustration. "I know that I used to know him, especially the smiles and corny jokes he makes, and I can feel it, but it's just so..." He huffed again.

"I know it's irritating, but please continue, Jason."

He ran his hands through his hair. "I've been under a lot of stress, Pipes. You know that, Hell, I don't even remember you! I don't remember our first kiss, or when we started dating and it's all so frustrating!" I ignored the pang that I got.

"But then I saw him and all of a sudden I was angry and..." He paused and gulped and avoided my gaze. "I started hitting him." The smallest of whispers escaped his mouth. He looked up again, staring at me with those tear-filled eyes again. "I beat him Piper! And he asked me if that was how I treat his best friend!" He sobbed, his face alarmed, as if that had just occurred to him. He hugged me and sobbed furiously into the crook of my neck. "I hit him, Piper! And I didn't stop!" He kept on sobbing.

"I'm a horrible person, Pipes! I can't even remember my own sister, girlfriend and now my best friend!" I felt his wet tears spill onto my neck.

I couldn't help, but feel another horrible pang, he doesn't remember you. "Jason, did he hit you too?" I asked him.

I felt him shake his head. "No, and that's the worst part! He just kept sass-backing me, something that I know he probably did before too! It's all my fault that I have amnesia and I'm just too lazy to remember things." He sobbed once again.

I pulled away again and stared sternly into his eyes. "Jason, it's nobody's fault that you have amnesia. I understand that it's hard, but the doctor said that you'll get your memories back soon, okay?" I kissed his nose and rested my forehead on his.

I waited for him to calm down a bit before asking the next question. "Jason, if Leo didn't hit you, then who did?"

He sniffed. "That Jackson guy. Apparently they are friends because he threatened me to not hit Leo again, or else."

I stared at him for a while, processing the information and analyzing it. "He's the guy who wears a hoodie all the time, right?" Jason nodded. I hugged Jason, rubbing his back, waiting for him to calm down.

"You must think that I'm worthless, aren't I?" Jason humorlessly chuckled. I pulled away from Jason yet again and kissed him with passion, then pulled away. I still had the same effect I had as always whenever I kissed him passionately, which was to leave him pouting like a three-year-old. It was kind of adorable.

"No, you aren't worthless, Sparky." I whispered and hugged him again. "You are one of the sweetest guys I've ever met, one of the most handsome and strongest. Jason, you might've just beat someone, but everyone makes mistakes sometimes, right? Besides you are in a tough situation. I bet anyone else would have done nothing, complain and not even try to remember someone or something."

We stayed like that for a couple minutes in silence, and I think that's all that Jason needed right now.

* * *

 **Percy POV**

"So, if you want to learn how to skate, it's going to take a lot of dedication, practice, and determination. Just because you can't ollie yet, doesn't mean that it's the end of the world. Sometimes it can take someone a year to learn how to ollie, others it can take a couple of months. It isn't a competition, it's just a sport you want to learn. Okay, Leo?"

Leo grinned, even though it had a little strain because of the events that took place earlier. "You should become a teacher." He was wearing my old helmet, knee pads and elbow pads, sporting my skateboard by his side.

I laughed. "Yeah, right." I walked over to him, popped the skateboard and grabbed it. "Alright, so the first thing you want to know, is how to push."

I lay my board on the ground and started to push normally and easily. "Looks pretty easy, huh?" I asked him. Leo nodded.

"It's actually quite hard at first, you have to get comfortable and have to remain balanced." I continued pushing, showing him how to do it.

"It's actually kind of like walking too. Go ahead and walk like you always do." Leo followed my instructions and started walking around.

I left the board alone and stood away, but close enough just in case Leo falls. "Now walk up to the board, not fast, but at regular speed, and make sure to lean forward so you don't fall."

He started walking to the board, slowly and confidently, until he stepped on the board and slipped. The board rolled away, with Leo landing on his side and arms. I grabbed the board and walked over to him.

"Ow." Is the first thing that he said to me.

I chuckled and helped him up. "What did I say about leaning forward?"

"Lean forward or else I will fall."

"And what happened?"

"I fell." He admitted.

"Now do it again, slowly, without fear, and leaning forward."

This time, Leo followed my instructions, walking over to the board and started pushing. He was wobbling, had his arms spread, trying to balance himself.

"I think you might be left footed. Here, trying it with your left foot."

He stepped away from his board and instead started to skate with his left foot. He was much more balanced this time, wobbling less than before and more confident. "That's good. Practice a little bit more, then we'll move on to the next step."

* * *

Hours later, Leo had even more bruises than before, and he was complaining how tired he was. "Is skateboarding always this tiring?" He whined.

"Yes, but soon you'll build enough stamina to not get as tired trust me."

"But, when will we start doing the actual tricks?"

I sighed. "This is the fifth time you've asked me that, and as I said before, it'll take around 2 weeks for you to become comfortable riding."

"That long?"

"Yes Leo, that long."

He groaned. "I don't have enough patience!"

"You think I have a lot? The only reason why I didn't give up on skating was because I was determined to skate perfectly."

"Yeah, but you're... You."

"And what is the exact difference?"

I caught him there and he groaned again, knowing the he wasn't able to reply. "Look, it's worth it in the end."

He sighed. "Fine,"

I grinned and patted his head. "Good boy." He swatted my hand away and grunted. We were sitting on the curb of a convenience store near the skate-park, drinking some slushies and sharing a bag of gushers.

"I better get going, I have to go do some homework." Leo stood up and winced. "After I take a nap."

I laughed. "Bye."

Leo waved and he left.

* * *

I sat down at a table in the library, one that was in a secluded place so we wouldn't disturb anyone because I'm sure she might start to yell at me for not being to solve a problem.

I sighed and drummed my fingers on the wooden table, currently playing some notes from our song It's a Hard Life. I sighed and glanced at the clock again. Two more minutes until she arrives.

I hate libraries. I hate everything about them. The smell, the books, the chairs, the _silence_. I think that's what I hate the most, the silence. I like music, I like making noise, even if it's just banging on a table or drumming my fingers on a table. I tend to avoid the library normally.

I heard someone sit down next to me, hearing the noise of someone dropping their books on the table. I looked up and saw Annabeth, who was sporting a messy bun, a light blue sweater, and some jeans.

"Sorry I'm late." She huffed and took out some more books out of her backpack.

"Late?" I snorted, "You're barely 3 seconds late."

She raised and eyebrow and grabbed some more books that were inside her backpack. I gulped, "Is it neccessary to bring so many books?"

"Well," She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "You said you needed help with _all_ of the subjects, so I thought I'd bring everything."

I frowned and licked my lips. "How long are we going to stay here?"

She grimaced, "Possibly three hours."

My eyes widened comically, good thing she couldn't see my eyes. "That's way too much. I'm sorry, but I can barely handle an hour of just sitting down and doing nothing. Besides, you're going to get frustrated with because I'm terrible at this and I'm going to ruin my chance of getting better grades."

She raised an eyebrow challengingly. "I beg to differ. I'm pretty sure that I can teach you this."

I sighed and leaned back on my chair. "Fine," I shrugged. "you can try if you like."

The steely glint in her eyes told me that she accepted the challenge. "So, what is your worst subject?"

"English," I absentmindedly said. I started to drum my fingers again on the table.

"Oh, that's not exactly my fort either."

My eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Oh really? What's your average in English?"

She winced, "B-"

"But that's a great average! Especially for English! I mean, how many AP classes do you take?"

She looked at the ceiling and counted, "Geometry, Chemistry, and Spanish"

"Geometry? How can someone stay awake in Geometry, much less be in an AP class?" I inquired dubiously.

Annabeth laughed a little at my disbelief. "I'm a Night Owl. I somehow manage to sleep for only 4 hours and study for the rest of the day."

"Woah. I sleep _twice_ that, and I _still_ need more sleep to function."

"I noticed." She grinned.

I shoved her lightly, grinning too. She's nicer than I thought. So far, the conversation was going well, no verbal fights had broken out, and we haven't started studying yet. With my luck, everything is going to get a whole lot worse.

"So, before we end up speaking for the rest of the session, I'm going to test how you read." She took out one of her notebooks and a red ballpoint pen.

"No." I immediately retorted, so used to saying that that it became reflex.

She sighed and grabbed a book anyways. "Percy, reading helps you in English. Your brain analyzes the structure, the grammar, and a lot more. Your going to have to read books if you want to improve your grade."

She handed it to me, waiting for me to open the book. I opened the book grudgingly, knowing how much I'm going to embarress myself. I chose a random page and cleared my throat and started to read, " _When I revealed that I was Patty's Sacred Saint,_ _ev-everyone laughed..._ " The words were floating around the page, doing 180's and not making sense at all. " _because everyone knew,_ " I was starting to become frustrated noticebly. I was reading like a second grader, hesitating and pronouncing everything slowly." _And Patty did his best impression of being stupendous, which was nice o-of him._ " I stuttered through my words.

I didn't continue, knowing that I had read enough for Annabeth to know my reading level. I looked down and tugged on my hoodie after setting the book down on the table. "You have dyslexia." She commented nonchalantly. She wrote a few things down on her notebook idly.

I sharply looked up at her, preparing myself to die of embarressment. "I have dyslexia too."

My jaw dropped and I swear it touched the floor. "How can you have dyslexia? Your so..." I wildly gestured at her. "You."

She rolled her eyes and dropped the pen she was holding. "I practiced. I read books, I studied more often, I asked for non-dyslexic friend's help and more. But it's still hard, it's not like it just completely goes away. That's the reason why I'm in normal English with you, and not in AP English."

"Oh." My vague self presented itself.

She chuckled a bit. "Anyways, let's get working."

* * *

After three hours of studying and discovering a new thing called mindfullness, where we basically meditate, we called it a day. "So," Annabeth said as we started to clean everything and leave.

"Yeah?" I swung my backpack over my shoulder. The other strap had ripped, and I was pretty sure that this strap was about to rip too.

"We're studying again tomorrow, right?" She put on her backpack a lot more gracefully than me.

"Yeah." I said. I awkwardly stood there for a second with her, not knowing what to say. "Um, thanks." I mumbled and tugged on my hoodie.

"Your welcome." She commented, but she stayed where she was, as if she was expecting something else.

Right. "I'll see you tomorrow." I awkwardly waved, the tension killing me.

"Bye." She left the library silently and hastily.

I sighed and checked my phone, seeing that I got a text from Beck. _We got a gig at a different bar today, hurry up,_ the text read. I silently cursed, glancing at the clock that was above the Non-Fiction book section. It was 6:30, Annabeth and I had taken more time than we planned while studying.

I hastily left the library and entered the hall. I double checked to see if there were any teachers before setting my board down and skating in the school. I did a couple tricks and dodged some trash, and I had to be cautious if a teacher decides to pop out of nowhere.

Soon I was in the courtyard, and I performed a kickflip over the 5 stair, surprisingly landing on first try. I whooped and skated faster, feeling the familiar rush of adrenaline that I got when I was skating fast.

I passed a lot of cars, trying to skate faster than them, but failing everytime. I was approaching home more rapidly than ever before, and I knew that I had to be sweating buckets. I skated faster, going down a hill before finally arriving to the apartment grounds. My hoodie was down, and I fixed the way I had my beanie on, showing more of my hair and wearing it normally.

Tyson was outside, playing with one of his toy cars and trying to fix it. "Hey buddy," I greeted him, squatting down and ruffling his hair.

He giggled and hugged me. "Brother, I've made you something!" For some reason, Tyson has always called me brother. At first, it was kind of irritating, but then it slowly turned into an endearment and I feel touched that he thinks of me as a brother.

"Really Tyson? What is it?" I questioned, thinking it might be a toy car. I'd treasure it because Tyson made it for me.

"Look!" He pulled out something from his pocket. It was an old watch, made out of steel and was painted black, and had Roman Numerals, and the glass was cracked. It was rusty, alright, but it was working.

"Tyson, you didn't have to." I softly said. Seeing his hurt expression, I quickly fixed my mistake. "I mean, I love it and all, but why give me a present?"

Tyson grinned and said, "Because you're the best big brother ever!" He had a small lisp when speaking. No one has told him because we find it so damn cute.

My face softened and I pulled Tyson into a hug again. "Thanks, bud." I told him and pulled away. "Bye!"

Tyson waved and grinned, "Check the back of the watch!" He exclaimed.

I chuckled and waved back, "Okay!"

Before I could look at the back of the watch, I heard a "Perce! Hurry up!" From the parking lot, and I quickly ran over there. I couldn't skate because the ground wasn't fit for skating without falling flat on my face.

I saw the Lee standing next to the van waiting for me. "Come on, we're late." He told me and slid the van door open. I climbed in after him, greeting the rest.

"Alright, so the bar's a few minutes away." Will said once I had sat down and Michael started the car. Will droned on, and I pulled the watch out of my pocket where I had left it.

I turned the watch so I could see the back, and saw a piece of tape on the back and something was written incomprehensively there. It took me a full minute to see that Tyson had written his name on the back in big, messy handwriting. I smiled and put the watch on.

* * *

"Yeah! We killed it!" Will exclaimed as we sat down at a table.

"Yeah, they loved us!" Beck agreed. I whooped and sat down. The bar we played at wasn't as messy as Cadeceus, and it most definitely didn't have good food like Cadeceus does. The bar was more famous than Cadeceus and had a younger audience too.

"They're faces were priceless when we started playing!" Michael laughed, "Especially when Will started to sing!"

"What about Good Riddance? That was amazing too." Will complimented me, "I mean, did you hear the acoustic guitar solo?"

Beck nodded, "That was pretty spontaneous. I honestly wasn't expecting for you to nail it that well, Perce."

Instead of denying it this time, I decided to save the awkwardness and retort, "I find your lack of faith in me disturbing." They guys laughed. Silena hadn't come, as she had night classes on Wednesdays.

Before we could converse more, a guy dressed up nicely walked over to us. "You're Blue Cherry Coke, right?" He asked. Seeing us nod, he continued speaking. "I was wondering where I could buy your album."

My eyebrows shot up in surprise, this is the first time we've been asked this. "You-you want our album?" I stuttered. "Oh my god." I freaked out, I smiled incredulously and ran my hand through my hair.

"We don't have an album." Beck said before I did something stupid.

The man's face fell. "Oh, really? I thought that a record label would've signed you in by now. You guys have a lot of potential." He complimented us and left.

"I'm fangirling." I deadpanned, and couldn't keep the smile off of my face. "We were asked for the first time if we had an album. Oh my god."

Will grabbed the can of beer that he had and raised it, "Here's to our first steps to fame!" He declared.

We whooped again and clinked our cans together, laughing. First steps to fame.

* * *

 **It's 5 in the morning and I couldn't sleep because of this. I'll let you know that I sacrificed sleep for this, and sleep is precious. Anyways, thanks for your attention and leave suggestions in the reviews below!**

 **Also, please tell me if there are any typos. Like I said, It's really late and I should be sleeping, so there might be incorrect grammar and mistakes.**

 **Thank you for reading!**

 **~TheMistressofSass**


	5. Of Tours and Study Sessions

**Hey guys! I know, I know, I haven't updated in awhile and I should've published this sooner, and all of that jazz. But I've been having finals! And the days to take the tests were all in a row, so yeah, that was a huge pain in the ass since when I got home I had to immediately start studying for the next subject. But not to worry, I am on vacation now, so that means I'll have a lot of free time! Also, my good friend and now editor of this story WolfEffect helped in this chapter! So please go ahead and check him out!**

 **Suggestions:**

 **Ironically I don't have enough time to write all of the suggestions, so I'll incorporate them in the next chapter. Although, you may see a suggestion at the end (It's about Percy's beanies) suggested by TouchDouche.**

* * *

"So, if you read a chapter and make an analysis after you read that chapter, you will start to understand everything more easily." I stared at the open book in my hands, The Adventures of Oliver Twist. I'd never really held any interest to books since they were hard to read, but now, after starting to conquer my dyslexia and actually understanding the book, everything's become easier.

Annabeth scribbled a couple of things down on one of her post it's and handed it to me. "Here, these are a couple of question you can ask yourself." She handed me a neon green post it. "Keep it in your English notebook so you don't lose it."

"Thanks." I grabbed it and looked at the back of it, it had her name written neatly like on the sharpie from the other day.

I quickly placed it on my English notebook, making a memo to myself for using this while reading books.

I looked up at the clock, discovering that the 3 hours were up. I didn't want to leave just yet, finding my time with Annabeth was starting to become more… Pleasant than before, after two weeks of tutoring. Sure, we still argued and she still was kind of annoying but she's become more tolerable and kinder.

But I didn't miss the weird glances she sent me. I don't know how to describe them, but they weren't love-struck or anything, they were more, sad? I haven't commented on it yet, because I think it might cause a fight. And I don't like fighting with her, or with anyone, actually.

"So Percy, I heard that you have a test next Thursday about Math," She started, packing her things up.

"Yeah? What about it?" I packed my things slowly, being careful on not to rush things.

"Have you studied for it?" She asked me, as if I should've known the question.

"No, I usually wait around two days before the test to study."

She sighed, "You have to study at least around 5 days before you have a test, you should know that. You shouldn't be procrastinating if you want to get good grades." She stood up and swung her backpack over her shoulders. Her backpack was purple and had thick straps and had a waistband that she didn't use.

"Yeah, I know." I said, absentmindedly thinking about how many hours I spent lounging on the couch and playing with the guys, or helping out Silena when it comes to shopping. She shops every single day, and each one the band members have an assigned day to accompany her. (I'm her favorite mall buddy, because according to her I have good taste in clothes.)

"What are you doing this Saturday?" She asked me nonchalantly.

I froze and started screaming inside. This is the part where she asks you on a date! One part of my brain said, Shut up, the rational part of my brain snapped. "Nothing for the day."

"Then we should study together for your test at my house, just in case."

I tugged on my hoodie, "Sure. But I have to leave at around six, because…" I tugged on my hoodie a bit more fiercely, "I have a curfew." I stated, but it sounded more like a question. "You know me," I chuckled nervously, "'rents don't let me stay up late."

She raised an eyebrow, unconvinced. "Sure." She said disbelievingly. Fortunately, she didn't question it. Which was kind of out of character of her, but lately she'd been defying what I thought of her before.

"Oh," She took her backpack and lay it on the table. She unzipped it and grabbed a textbook from it. "You forgot this last session."

It was my Math notebook, which was filled with scribbles of words that meant things to me, horrible drawings, and guitar chords. Of course, it had the occasional mathematical equation and notes that I've copied in class.

"Oh, thanks." I thanked her as she gave it back to me. We stood in a sort of awkward silence, because after all it wasn't as if we knew each other very well. Besides, most silences when you have to say goodbye always have tension in them, at least it's what I feel.

"Have you ever heard of Luke's band?" She asked abruptly.

I shifted, "Well, yeah. I haven't seen them perform yet though."

She raised an eyebrow. "But they performed around three weeks ago during a school assembly. You didn't see them?"

No. I decided to ditch that assembly because I hated them, not only do they give hour long speeches and promote sponsors, but they also have the cheerleaders perform during the assembly, which made all of the guys stare at them hungrily, and that reminded me of Gabe, who stared at any female that walked past him.

"No, I didn't go to school in the morning because I felt sick."

She stared at me confused. "But the assembly was in the afternoon."

I started to tug on my hood and gulped, "Did I say morning? I meant afternoon." I chuckled nervously and yet again gulped.

She rolled her eyes. "You ditched school, didn't you?"

"No." My statement sounded more like a question.

She sighed and said, "It doesn't matter. Just don't skip school too much, okay? You might miss important things that teachers said, or maybe a pop quiz."

I nodded quickly, glad that she didn't scold me too much or threaten to rat. "Anyways," she continued, fiddling with a bracelet that said Paramore on her wrist. Interesting. "You haven't heard their music, right?"

I stopped staring at her wrist and gazed back into her grey eyes. "No."

"I'll show you then." She set her backpack down and sat back down on the table. She grabbed her cellphone out of her pocket and a set of earphones.

I stood there for a moment before reacting and following her lead, grabbing the chair that I had sat on before and moved it closer to hers, so we could share her earphones.

She plugged the earphones in and handed me the right one. "Tell me if they are good or not."

I almost grimaced when the song started playing, it was way too popish and the guitar riffs weren't very good. They had very simple and repetitive lyrics, and tried to rhyme in every verse, for example they rhymed, 'tank' and 'wank'. The song was about a girl (and objectifying her), which was a topic that was way too overused.

While there were various bad things, there were also good things, like the fact that the bass was actually pretty good, and the drummer was obviously talented by the way he/she played. The chorus was also catchy and the singer sang with a lot of passion and it sounded as it were made for punk and not whatever genre this was.

"What genre are they?"

She shrugged. "Luke says that they're pop rock."

"What instrument does Luke play?"

"Bass." My eyebrows shot into my hairline. The main instrument that had kept the band from being bad was the bass, and you could hear from the complicated bass lines that Luke was great at playing the bass.

"He's really good."

She nodded and tucked a loose strand behind her ear. "I know. He started playing bass when he was 8, and has played since."

I whistled, impressed. "Damn. I didn't know he's played bass for 11 years."

"He actually tried to teach me. Emphasis on 'tried.'"

I laughed, throwing my head back. "What happened?"

She blushed and smiled, one of those smiles that someone wears while talking about something cool or good that happened in the past. "We kissed."

I frowned, thinking that she was going to say something comical instead of romantic. "Oh. I thought you were going to say something funny."

Her smile faltered. "Well, sorry that I didn't meet your expectations."

"It's okay." I shrugged, "You don't usually meet my expectations."

She turned to me, a slight blush and a raised eyebrow. "Are you flirting with me?"

I sputtered, "W-what?" I blushed and tugged on my hoodie. "Where did you get that idea? I'd never flirt with you!" I whisper-yelled.

She stared at me, affronted. Quickly her stare turned into a glare. "Do you mean that I'm not likeable?"

"No! I mean, you are likeable and all but I don't like, like-like you!"

Her affronted stare turned sly, "Are we in middle school now, Percy? Like-like?"

I groaned and held my head in my hands. "How do I even tolerate you?"

She grinned, "I'm very tolerable, I believe quite more than you."

I raised my head from my hands and glared at her, trying to make her grin falter. It didn't work. She just held up her head high, barely flinching when I turned my glare into my all-out wolf glare.

I groaned again and sighed. Annabeth smirked smugly, her grey eyes like storms that at first intimidated me, but I quickly made peace with.

Annabeth pulled her phone out to check the time and her eyes widened. "Sorry Percy." She grabbed her back and flung it over her back. "I'm late. I'll see you on Saturday?"

I nodded, grabbing my backpack a lot more calmly than her. She started to leave hastily, flipping her hair back that had gotten caught in between her backpack and back. "See you, Annabeth." I called after her.

She turned around and smiled, waving at me before exiting the library.

* * *

"Dude," Beck said once he saw me flop down on the couch the next day, exhausted. "what's gotten you so tired?"

"I slept terribly, Mr. Boring yet again gave me detention, I fell on my skateboard and scraped myself badly and I some guy at school pushed me on purpose. So I've had a great day." I said, sarcasm dripping from my last sentence.

"That sucks dude." Beck commented, glancing over at me and patting my head awkwardly.

"You know, I sometimes wonder how you manage to comfort Silena when you can barely manage to pat my head." I challenged him, raising my eyebrows. I'd taken my hoodie and beanie off before I sat down on the couch, because the heat was killing me.

Beck faked looking offended. "Ouch, Perce, that hurt my feelings." Beck said in his deep voice. Sometimes it amazes me by how deep his voice sounds always, it's like plucking the lowest string on the bass and listen to it for a long time and loud, and you can feel it with your heart. My voice compared to his is, well, to put it lightly, like a very high pitched first grader comparing his voice to a bass.

I rolled my eyes and stood up, yawning. "Calm down, Perce." Beck chuckled, "you look like a lion doing his tremendous roar."

I glared at him with drooping eyes. "I need to go sleep." I grumbled. I scratched my head and started walking towards our shared room. "I swear Beckendorf, if I find another bra laying on my bed again, I'm going to force you to wear it on your head and run outside."

"About that!" Beck's panic filled voice stopped me. He quickly stood up, running to our room and blocking the door so I couldn't get in. "I forgot something!" He entered the room quickly, blocking my view, and coming out of the room just as rapidly as he had entered. He had a bulge in his pants, and a light pink bra strap was sticking out of his sweatpants.

I stared at the bra strap and glanced back up at Beckendorf. "I obviously don't see the bra strap sticking out of your pants." Beck's eyes widened and he looked back down at his pants and saw the strap.

He blushed, which was a very rare thing of him to do. "I'll just, you know, get going." He walked away, the bra strap hanging from his pants. I laughed at him, before entering our room.

The first thing I noticed was that Beck's bedsheets were thrown, one that was just hanging out the window and another that lay on the floor. I sighed, exasperated, since this is most definitely not the first time that sheets were tossed on the floor. A lot of posters were also strewn across the floor, along with clothes and vinyl records, and a random toothbrush lying around. I walked over to my bed, which was neat (thanks to Lee, he's the best in tidying the beds) already.

I plopped on my bed, groaning and not even bothering to get inside of my bed. I was way too tired to achieve that, plus I'm pretty sure I'm going to start drooling soon. I lay on bed, sleeping almost instantly, after a stressful day of complete shit.

* * *

Finally, it was Saturday, the day of going to Annabeth's house and studying math which will probably be absolute torture, considering the fact that it's math and I have to go to her house, meaning I will probably meet her family. And then we have the concert, which is something I am also worrying about.

It seems like I am very in very dreadful mood today. Yipee.

"Perce, remember that we'll pick you up at 6 on the dot." Michael reminded me from the driver's seat, interrupting my train of dread. We were in the van, just the two of us, driving to Annabeth's house.

"Yeah, yeah, I know." I harshly replied.

Michael glanced at me, slightly annoyed. "It's not necessary to be rude, you know that."

I sighed, looking at the window. We were in a rich neighborhood, which made ours look like a trash dump. Some of the gardens were beautiful, it had flowers all nicely placed and some bushes shaped like odd things. Hell, some houses even had fountains!

"I know. It's just," I sighed. "I'm stressed out."

He glanced at me again and raised an eyebrow at me suggestively. "Oh, is it because you've got a study date?" He grinned.

I blushed slightly. "It's not a date, it's just a tutoring session for a math test."

"Ah, Percy. You know it's not good to be in denial. Besides, you're meeting her parents already! What's the next step, proposing? Marrying her? Knock-" I shoved Michael hard, interrupting his suggestions.

We veered slightly to the left because of the force I pushed him with. He chuckled anyways. "Be careful, Perce. We're going to crash into a jogger."

"Shut up," I grumbled.

"Anyways, I think we're here." He stopped at a huge house, with a beautiful garden, a fountain, and a huge house. The house's color was a light beige, and had several windows. The gable roof was a light navy blue color that went well with the beige somehow.

"Woah." I said. I'd heard rumors that she was rich, but I didn't know she was that rich. It kind of made me feel less than her. Well, even more less than her.

"Indeed woah." Michael stared at the house, awestruck.

I grabbed my backpack that was filled with my Math book and opened the door. "Thanks for driving me."

Michael shrugged. "No problem. But," he looked at me mischievously and leaned closer to me. I immediately got a bad feeling by his sly look. "did you bring the condoms?"

My eyes widened and I blushed. He started laughing hard and I shoved him again. "Not funny." The blush still wouldn't go away.

He rolled his eyes. "Whatever, man. I'll get you later, so you better be prepared."

I stepped out of the van and adjusted my backpack on my shoulder as Michael left in the van. I glanced up at the house - no scratch that - mansion and took a deep breath. I carefully walked on the sidewalk, afraid that if I stepped on the grass I might contaminate it, or something.

I climbed the steps to their entrance and knocked on the door. I waited there for a long time, awkwardly waiting for someone to answer. I almost decided to knock again when Annabeth opened the door.

She wearing blue jeans and a pink sweater. "Hey Percy. Come on in."

I tugged on my hoodie and entered the house. It was, just like the outside, huge. The living room had a few couches, a flatscreen TV that two kids were currently watching what looked like a cartoon show on, and hell, even the lamps looked expensive!

The two kids who were watching the tv simultaneously turned around and grinned. It was creepy, considering they were apparently twins because of the obvious resemblance. They turned to Annabeth and the one on the left asked, "Annie, who is he?"

"He's a friend that I'm helping in Math." She answered.

They shared a quick glance, a sly one that certainly meant that I am doomed. "Oh really? Are you sure he isn't something… more?"

I blushed and tugged on my hoodie again. I glanced at Annabeth to see that she was also blushing, but looked like she was thinking of a plan to murder them. "Bobby! Matthew! You know that I'm with Luke!" She hissed.

The twins looked at me again, sizing me up. "You're right, Annie. He looks more like a thief." The one on the left said. They grinned mischievously. "Just our type of guy." They said together, which also scared me again.

I was about to say that no, I was not a thief when Annabeth intervened before me. "He's not a thief. And be careful about what you say, you know what your mom will think." Bobby and Matthew both rolled their eyes and looked at me as if saying She's crazy to me.

Annabeth glanced at me, "Come on, Percy. Let's go to my room." She lead me up the spiral stairs, that were wooden and carefully designed. There were pictures on the wall of the family, but Annabeth wasn't included in most photos, which was strange.

"Where's your room?" I asked her once we reached the second floor. She led me through another hallway and climbed on another set of steps.

"It's in the attic." She said nonchalantly, as if living in the attic in a mansion was perfectly normal

My eyes widened, surprised. "But, there's like a thousand rooms here."

She laughed. "Doesn't mean I stay in them. I prefer the attic."

We reached the third floor soon, and she was leading us through another hallway again and to a trapdoor that was placed on the ceiling at the end of the hallway. She caught the string that was connected to the trapdoor and pulled. Immediately a set of white stairs unfolded and Annabeth started climbing. The stairs were steep and creaked whenever you stepped on them.

When I was in her room, I glanced around. Her room was filled with pictures and blueprints, not lying around but one bulletin boards or in stacks. She also had a white bookcase above her desk that looked like a zig zag. Her desk was vintage-themed and was a very dark blue, almost black color. Her queen-sized bed had curtains around it, and the sheets were a grey color, matching her eyes. She had a small TV that was on top of a set of drawers near her bed, and the set of drawers were moveable so that was pretty cool.

"I think I like your room better than the house." I complimented her as she sat down on her bed.

She smiled and tucked a loose strand of hair that had escaped her bun behind her ear. "Thanks, I designed it myself."

I sat down next to her set my backpack down. I started to unload my Math books so we could start soon. "So, do you know the contents of the test?"

I bit my lip and thought. "I think I wrote it down in my notebook." I opened my notebook and searched for the most recent things I had written in my Math notebook, which wasn't much. Hopefully, I at least wrote the contents down.

I finally found it after moments of panicking and trying to appear calm and collected so Annabeth wouldn't know that I was panicking internally. "Found it." I sighed, relieved.

"You know it was very obvious that you were panicking." She told me, rolling her eyes.

I tugged on my hoodie, a bit embarrassed. "No it wasn't." I retorted goofily.

She took my notebook from me, grinning. "Alright," She started, reading the contents. "I think we should study Trig first. Better to get all of the boring stuff out the way immediately." She suggested. She glanced at me, waiting for an answer.

I shrugged. "You're the tutor."

She grinned and flexed her fingers. "Let's get ready for some fun math!" She stated sarcastically, knowing that Math was one of the subjects I hated the most. Well, it was right next to English, that was certain.

"Whoope. Such fun." I commented dryly, raising my hand as if waving a flag.

She rolled her eyes yet again. "But before, we should start with some mindfulness to keep you more alert…"

* * *

"Finally!" I exclaimed when we finished studying Math. "I am free!" I jumped up and spread my arms, looking at the ceiling of Annabeth's bedroom.

She chuckled quietly, looking at the clock in her room. She turned back to me and said, "So, we have about 10 minutes before your friend comes to pick you up." She stood up and stretched. "Want to go grab a bite?"

"Sure," I said, licking my lips. "By the way, how many studying techniques do you have?" I asked her incredulously.

She laughed. "Oh, you've only seen half of them. I've got a lot more if you want me to show you, but I think you would rather go jump off a cliff than study again."

I pointed at her, "And that is where you're right."

She rolled her eyes. "When am I not right?" She said, sticking out her hip and crossing her arms.

I mockingly scratched my chin, "Well, that time when you said that modern music is so much better than old music, and that other time when you said scooters are way better than skateboards, and-"

She shoved me lightly. "Shut up, Jackson."

I smirked. "Make me, Chase." I dared her, staring into her eyes. Her eyes are a marvelous grey, aren't they? I thought. I didn't realize that we were a bit too close for comfort, until Annabeth coughed awkwardly.

I leaned back and tugged on my hoodie, uncomfortable. She's my tutor. She has a boyfriend. I seriously doubt she likes me platonically and did I mention that she has a boyfriend? "Anyways," Annabeth cleared her throat. "Let's go eat."

She stood up and I followed her lead again, grabbing my things while she waited for me. I grabbed my backpack and placed it on the bed, throwing my books inside my backpack not exactly neatly and started to close it. Midway through fully zipping it close, Annabeth stopped me by smacking my hand lightly and pushing me a bit. I raised my eyebrow at her, slightly peeved that she pushed me away from my backpack.

"I'm sorry but I cannot handle it when people throw their things in their backpack haphazardly." She explained once she saw my expression. I shrugged, accepting her habit and watched as she organized my books from biggest to smallest and making sure that the books were not upside down.

She closed it once she was done and handed it to me. "Thanks." I told her, grabbing my backpack and throwing it over my shoulders. There was some slight awkward tension in the air from our unintentional flirting from before.

I tugged on my hoodie, shifting my weight to my left foot. Annabeth's eyes widened slightly, as if realizing something. "Eat. Let's go eat." She said, reminding more herself rather than me.

She walked over to the trapdoor that lead out of her room. "You know," She said as she opened the trapdoor, "I seriously doubt that you'll get a bad grade on the Math test."

We walked down the stairs of the attic, reaching the third floor and starting to go down the hallway that lead to the spiral staircase. "Thanks for the support and all, but you don't know about the terrible grades I get. A fly could get better grades."

She glanced at me, looking at me with sympathy. "Percy, you shouldn't doubt yourself so much. I've seen how much you studied, how much you try. Your hard work will pay off in the end."

I shrugged, still slightly doubting myself, although less after Annabeth's speech. "Thanks." I realized that I'd already said that, "Again."

She smirked, "So articulate."

I shoved her lightly for her teasing and she grinned slightly. We walked in silence until we reached the first floor, but it wasn't exactly comfortable silence. You can't just eliminate awkward tension immediately after accidentally flirting with someone.

She lead me to the kitchen, which just like the rest of the house, looked like it costed at least a billion dollars. In the ceiling of the kitchen, there were an array of expensive looking lights that gave the kitchen a rich feeling, the kitchen had a small bar filled with bar stools that are nothing like the cheap ones Hermes buys for his bar, the table island was completely white and had nothing on top of it, while the rest of the kitchen had a bunch of counters that were mainly empty of things, except for the sink and some papers.

"Woah." Was the one word I used to describe the kitchen.

Annabeth smiled slightly and walked over to a pair of big cabinets. She opened the doors to the cabinets and I swear that those two cabinets should be named Food Galore for Percy.

I licked my lips, seeing all my favorite foods like Chips Ahoy, Oreos, Hersheys, and a bunch more things but I am afraid that if I list more I will start to drool. Speaking of that, I wiped my mouth in case to see if I had drooled possibly. Thankfully I didn't.

"We're not allowed to eat food from that stash, so grab a few things to not make it obvious that we stole some food." My eyes widened as I heard this.

"What?!" I unnecessarily whispered loudly. "But we're not allowed to!"

She rolled her eyes, grabbing a few Chips Ahoy. "Doesn't matter." She shrugged indifferently, "I doubt they'll notice anyways." She said, eating a cookie.

"Fine." I said, grabbing a few things and stuffing it in my mouth immediately, afraid that we'll get caught stealing. I tugged on my hoodie and ate fast.

Annabeth raised her eyebrow, now on her second cookie. "You know, my stepmother isn't home and my dad is working in the basement downstairs. They won't be barging into the kitchen demanding why we are eating from the stash of junk food."

I relaxed slightly at her comment, eating more slowly than before. "So, stepmother?" I asked, sitting down on one of the bar stools. I immediately noticed that I could spin around when I plopped down on the stool because it twisted. I grinned and started to spin on the bar stool.

"My parents divorced and my dad remarried a bit after." She vaguely replied, sitting down next to me.

"Oh." I stopped spinning and was about to comfort her, noticing the way she held her chin high, as if saying 'I am the womanliest woman alive and I will not cry.' I frowned, realizing that I recognized that look in her eyes. I doubt she actually ever cried about the divorce.

My phone rang and I was forced to pick it up as I looked at the time. 6:00 p.m. sharp. I stood up, declining the call and shoving my nokia inside of my pocket. "Thanks for inviting me and helping me out and all." I thanked her.

"You're welcome, and all." She mocked me, crossing her arms as if she wasn't just speaking about her parent's divorce moments ago. She stood up and lead me back to the entrance of the house.

"See you on Monday." I said, awkwardly waving at her even though we were less than 8 feet away from a each other.

She laughed a bit at my awkwardness, before opening the door for me to leave. The van was already outside, waiting for me to enter in all of its graffitied glory. I started to walk out, mentally making sure I didn't forget anything at her house, before Annabeth said, "Bye Percy." I turned around and waved again, only this time it was appropriate time to do that and she waved back at me.

I jogged over to the van, and when I was about two or three feet away the door slid open and Leo appeared, saying, "Surprise mo'fucker." He maniacally grinned, showing off his teeth and pulling on his suspenders.

I rolled my eyes, getting in the car and sliding the door close behind me. I turned to Leo and said, "Right back at you." He grinned again, not minding that I called him a motherfucker.

"Hey guys," I greeted the rest of the band. They greeted me back, saying 'Sup' or 'Hey'. From the front, in which Silena was apparently sitting, she made an indignant noise. I rolled my eyes again. "Hey Silena." I greeted her, sitting down on the floor and grabbing a beer from the cooler.

"Hello Percy." She greeted me back.

"Anyways," Beck, who was sitting across from me started, "Leo's here because he offered to be our lighting guy."

I turned to face Leo, who had sat down next to me. "Really?" I asked, slightly surprised.

He smirked, "Yep. I even have a control panel," He then glanced at Beck, "and Beck, it's technician guy, not lighting guy." Leo reminded him, as if he had told him that a thousand times already.

Beck rolled his eyes, shrugging indifferently. "Eh, potatoe, potahtoe."

Will, who was sitting in between Lee and Beck, said,"Alright, guys let's go over the things we're going to play…"

* * *

We finished Fat Bottomed Girls, our last song on the playlist, with a bang. No, literally, a bang. Leo had done some weird things with his control panel, and suddenly a bang sounded throughout the room when we hit the last note of the song.

During the show, Leo had spiced things up by flashing lights, random bangs, and whole lot more. I'm sure the crowd enjoyed the show, by all of the cheering they did. Hell, I think someone broke a table because they stood up on it and jumped a lot on it. I heard Hermes is going to put down some rules to contain the crowd.

In conclusion, the show was our best yet.

"Alright guys," Lee interrupted my train of thought. We were sitting down at The Booth, carving the date of this show on the table. I was sitting on the same side as Leo and Will, watching Beck carve the date. Not all of us were paying attention to Beck, though. I'm pretty sure Leo was tinkering with the contraption he had in his hand, Lee was still carving the date, and Will and Michael were writing some lyrics for a new song that Will had been working on for weeks. Silena and I were pretty much the only ones paying attention to him.

"I've been thinking, and what about if we go on tour and expand our fanbase?"

That certainly caught our attention. Lee immediately looked up from from his vandalism, dropping the pocket knife he had in his hand, Will faltered in his speech to Michael about how you have to have a lot of metaphors in songs, and Leo dropped whatever he had in his hands that was starting to reassemble a helicopter.

"Um, dude," Lee started grabbing his pocket knife and sitting up straight. "not sure if you haven't noticed, but our only fans are here. I doubt someone would want to listen to us in a different city if they haven't of us."

Beck raised his eyebrows, almost challenging Lee. "You're going to let that stop you?" Beck leaned in, staring at Lee intensely. "Just because people don't know us?"

When Lee didn't answer, Beck answered for him. "'Cause that sure as hell isn't going to stop me." Beck leaned back slowly, almost intimidatingly, and wrapped one arm around Silena.

"I'm with Beck on this one." I piped up after a moment of silence, causing everyone's heads' to look at me. I froze for a second, feeling everyone's stare, penetrating through my skull. I suddenly felt vulnerable, exposed. I fought my sudden, very rare shyness and continued, "We want someone from the music industry to notice us? Then we have to expand our fanbase."

"Yeah," Will nodded, agreeing with me. He stole the attention, but his attention wasn't as intense as the attention I received. "I'm with Beck too."

"Me too." Michael said from beside him, crossing his arms. "I'm not sure about you guys, but, I need to meet some new ladies so they can bask in my glory." He rubbed his hands together, grinning, as if already planning on how to bed some girls.

Did I mention that Michael has an ego the size of Mount Everest?

As usual, when Michael's ego decides to appear and start frolicking, we roll our eyes and ignore him. Lee, who was the only one who hadn't agreed stared at us, contemplating his choices. Finally he leaned back, crossed his arms, and said, "Fine."

The rest of us whooped, gave each other high fives and fistbumps. "Alright, alright," Will interrupted once we started calming down. "We need to plan where to go exactly."

"Chicago." Beck offered, "I've always wanted to visit." Will nodded, grabbing a napkin and writing down Chicago.

"Since we're going to Chicago, how about we go to New Jersey?" Michael offered.

Will shrugged and wrote it down. "Seattle?" Silena offered.

I grimaced, "That's kind of far. Besides, I have school."

Will frowned, as if he just remembered that small detail. "Right. How about we tour near here, only?" He offered, raising an eyebrow.

Lee shrugged. "As long as we leave the state and stay in the east, I'm fine with it."

"Denver? Indianapolis?" I offered the two cities. Seeing everyone else agree or shrug, Will wrote it down on the napkin.

"New Hampshire." Leo suggested. Will wrote it down. "Oh, and Washington D.C.. We can't miss that city." We waited until Will wrote down Washington D.C..

"What about Richmond?" Will offered, looking up for a second and seeing that no one objected and wrote it down. "Oh and Boston." Will suggested after a second. He put down his pen and looked at the napkin with the list of cities. "I think that's enough for now. Keep in mind that if we keep on naming more cities, we'll tour for at least a month." Will said, checking how many cities we had listed.

I shrugged. "At least we're touring. I think that's the most important thing." I said, then drank my beer that was in front of me.

"But when should we go?" Asked Will.

The table stayed silent for a moment. No one exactly knew when was the best time to leave, and when we had to leave we had to leave with a lot of supplies, and supplies cost money, which we were very low on at the moment. Bills don't pay for themselves, sadly.

"In a month? I suspect that we'll have enough money to tour." Michael suggested, then glanced at me. "Though, you're going to have to work for a bit, Perce."

I shrugged, not really caring if I had to work or not. You see, when the guys took me in and I told them my story, they wouldn't let me get a job to help them out financially. They said that since I've been working for as long as I could remember to help my mom pay taxes, then I should have at least a small period in life where I didn't work.

"Raise your hands if you agree to tour in a month." Lee offered, and immediately everyone's hands lifted. Even Leo and Silena's, whom I doubt are going to tour with us. We've been avoiding the subject. "So it's settled." Lee said, satisfied. "We're going to tour." We whooped, clinking our beers together.

"Now," Michael stood up, looking around the room. "I am going to go find a girl to celebrate this with." He scanned the bar, looking for a girl that was around his age. He grinned flirtatiously once he found the perfect girl. "See you later, boys." He swaggered away, preparing himself to flirt his way in the girl's pants.

After that, each one of us started to leave, going to the restroom, or just wanting to enjoy the rest of the night. Soon, it was just Leo and I at The Booth.

"Explain. Now." I demanded, not talking anymore of his bullshit.

Leo tried to act oblivious, "What do you mean?" He inquired nervously, drumming his fingers against the table.

"You think that I forgot about you and Jason?" I 'reminded' him. "Spill."

Leo sighed, and glanced at me. There was a hint of sadness in his gaze as he reminisced, "Jason and I... We go way back." The hint of sadness in his gaze increased, but only a little. "We used to go to the same high school, and we were best friends. He protected me against bullies, helped me in tough moments, and was an all in all good friend to me. But..." Leo paused in his speech to take a deep breath, "But now, it's like he doesn't even know me anymore. And it hurts so fucking much." Leo took another deep breath, but this time it was a shuddering breath. "There you go. That's the story." He leaned back and didn't say anything or even glance at me, just stayed quiet.

I didn't say that's was sorry. I don't understand why people say that if they have nothing to be sorry for. "You know," I started after a long period of silence. Leo looked at me, paying attention. "the first beanie that I was given was from my mom. It's this small, little blue beanie that I wore every single day." I smiled, remembering how many times I wore it and how I never took it off. I think I even slept with it once.

"But one day, Smelly Gabe, my stepfather, who at the time was in a very bad mood, saw me wearing that beanie and he just, exploded. He grabbed my beanie and tore it apart. I didn't cry, but I surely was very sad and very pissed off. So I bought more beanies, just to spite Smelly Gabe. I've worn them ever since." I sighed and sipped my beer.

"What happened?" Leo asked.

"What do you mean?" I questioned back, confused.

Leo rolled his eyes. "What happened to the first beanie? Did you throw it away?"

"I keep it in a shoebox in my closet." I replied. From then on we basked. In the heavy silence of our miserable thoughts. Maybe Leo and I have a lot more in common than I thought.

* * *

 **See you guys next chapter, and thank you for your patience and kindness. It really means alot to me.**

 **~Valentina.**


	6. Of Surprises and Blue Ice Cream

**Hey guys! I have finally beat writers block and was able to write 6,755 words. Yes. I did it. I am so sorry for the incredibley long wait, it was all my fault, I have zero excuses. I'm really tired and it 3:02 am and I just finished and i'm pretty sure the end was terrrible but I can't make you guys wait any longer. Big, big big, huge, humongous thanks to WolfEffect for helping me. He's also an awesome friend, please go check him out.**

 **By the way my birthday was last week! It was really cool I went hunting with my cousin (I didn't kill anything don't worry). And I went to lollapalooza which was lit af! I saw all of my favorite bands and it was the best weekend of my life. I hope y'all are having a good day too! (I'm sorry if this seems all oover the place I am very tireda nd can barely process anything**

 **EDIT: I edited the fic just a bit. Only a slight change.**

* * *

 **Percy POV**

Well? That's the only word that I can use to describe this my week. Just well. It's not even a what-can-you-do well, it's more like a this-week-is-causing-me-a-lot-stress well. That might've been slightly long, but that's the exact description.

I better explain things. With my rotten luck, my week started out by waking up late on Monday morning, waking up to Beckendorf blaring an air horn at me for revenge from a prank on him which left me pondering on what my next prank should be, on Tuesday I accidentally ran into an old lady who said some words that were definitely not rated PG, on Wednesday it was announced that next week we had a test about the book we were reading, The Zahir, which I had totally forgotten was the book we were supposed to read, and then on Thursday I had a ton of homework that I need to turn in by Monday, and nothing has happened on Friday. Yet.

Right after school finished I chose to go skating in Central Park instead of at the skatepark today. I didn't feel like doing tricks today. I just needed to relax for a little bit, listen to music, and just skate around the park. This time, I was careful to not crash into another rated R old lady.

As I skated, I felt the fresh air breeze against my face, the feel of the smooth sidewalk that I skated which felt different from the rocky street, and listening to Livin' on a Prayer by Bon Jovi. The scene felt serene, if that is the correct adjective to describe a peaceful scene. It was very rare that I had these type of moments; just me, my skateboard, and my music. And the occasional mime, of course (Long story).

I leaned backwards slightly, turning right to dodge a 7 year old girl who looked like she was learning how to roller skate for the first time, as she was wobbling a lot and going slow. I set one foot on the ground and pushed to to accelerate more, and that was when I turned my head and saw a golden haired girl with princess curls reading a wide book on a bench. The thing that made me slightly loose my balance? The girl was Annabeth.

The skate wobbled and I had to get off before I ended up falling, which made Annabeth look up from her book and look at me. Her eyes widened, her eyes holding a bit of incredulousness until they softened into a smile. "Hey Percy!" She called, closing her book but not before marking the page she was in. She got up and walked over to me.

I sent her a half sheepish half slightly shy smile, then snapped the board and caught it by the trucks, making sure the front side wasn't facing my hoodie, or else the grip might start to ruin my hoodie. I learned that the hard way. "Hey Annabeth." My voice came out slightly raspy, as if a had a cold. I cleared my throat.

There was a moment of slightly uncomfortable silence. It was the first time we spoke to each other outside of school, not counting the time I went over to her house since she tutored me, and we barely spoke to each other in school.

"What are you doing here?" She asked, before closing her eyes and realizing her mistake.

"Oh, ya know," I started sarcastically, "Just frolicking around with my skate is something that I always do whenever I go to Central Park."

She sighed, stuffing her hands in her jean pockets. "I walked right into that, didn't I?" I nodded as a response. You know how whenever you spot a classmate outside of school in like a supermarket or somewhere else, and you say hi to them, it's terribly awkward? Well, that's exactly what's happening.

So I decided to break the ice by asking, "What book are you reading?" She looked up from the ground, her eyes widening a bit, not expecting me to say something.

"Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen." She replied, showing me the pink cover of the book. It said Pride and Prejudice in light blue with a bunch of quotes which I only made out one: Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance.

"My mom read that book." I commented. "She wanted- I mean, wants- to be a writer." I cleared my throat after my mistake, but all of a sudden she looked at me with that sad glance- eyebrows scrunching up, grey eyes softening from the grey storms they were into light clouds, her lips slightly pursed. She quickly covered it up with a smile, making me think that I imagined that sad glance. Almost.

"Did she like it?" She asked.

"Oh, yeah." I said, remembering when she read it while bandaging my cuts one time. I swallowed the lump in my throat, blinking a bit. I really hated it when people brought up my mom, but Annabeth didn't know about that yet. "I think she read the first page to me when I was, like, 5. But I didn't have a very advanced vocabulary at that time, so it seemed really boring."

Annabeth nodded slightly, agreeing with me. "The first time I read it, I was 13, so I had to re-read a lot of the pages. But I ended up loving it after I understood it. Now it's one of my favorite books." All of a sudden, she gained a mischievous glint in her eye. "You should read it."

I smirked slightly. "Care to tell me what's it about?" I asked slyly. Now, last time she assigned me to read a book, I asked her what it was about. She started off with a good summary, but then she ended up accidentally telling me the whole story. When I told her that after she was done, I swear she got a little flustered. As you can guess, she told me to shut up.

She shook her head. "Uh uh, Jackson. You're going to have to read it yourself. It'll help your English grade." She had this devious little smirk plastered on her face the entire time.

I sheepishly smiled, spinning my board. "See, I kind of forgettoreadtheenglishbook." I mumbled the last part rapidly.

"I'm sorry, what?" She asked, not ill-mannered.

I sighed. "I forgot to read the English book." I said a little louder and slower than before.

She frowned, realizing she can't made me read two books at once because of the deadline. She looked down, just for a moment, then snapped her head back up. "You can read The Zahir with me, and then after the test, you read Pride and Prejudice by yourself."

I pouted. "Isn't it easier if you just," I smiled a bit here, "tell me about The Zahir? It'll save us a lot of time." I tried convincing her.

"Nice try, but I'm a tough nut. Besides, it'll-"

"improve my English, I know." I cut her off. "You've said that a million times already." I groaned.

"And I'll keep saying it until you read that book." She stubbornly replied. "I'll try reading with you whenever I can, but when I'm not available, you're going to have to read it by yourself."

"But reading makes me feel stupid." I mumbled under my breath softly. I didn't want her to hear what I said, but she ended up hearing it anyways by the look on her face.

She sighed then said, "I understand what you're going through, Percy. It's hard to read when all of the letters dance on the page." She looked down for a moment, then glanced back at me, hesitating slightly. "I have dyslexia too, remember. It was hard for me at the start. Now it's easier. The same thing will happen to you, trust me."

I smiled slightly. "Thanks." I've already been told this by a thousand teachers, by all of my friends, by the tutors that I had when I was younger, and my mom. But none of them had dyslexia, or had ever conquered dyslexia. So Annabeth saying this to me was different.

"Wanna go grab a bite?" I asked, spinning my board on my palm.

"Sure." She smiled. "Where do you want to go?"

"Hmm." I thought aloud. "What about that ice cream shop around the corner?"

"Definitely. I've gone there before, it's really good. Plus, they make the best strawberry ice cream." She started to turn around as she was talking, so I put my skateboard down and started to ride slowly after her.

"I've never really eaten there before," I said as I lightly pushed. "I've just recently heard of it." Which was true. A couple months ago, Beck and Silena went on a double date with Silena's friends there and when they arrived back at the apartment Beck couldn't stop talking about how delicious the ice cream was and how the waiters were so nice and didn't even hit on Silena (which happens quite a lot) so he ended up really loving that place. "A friend of mine went there and couldn't stop talking about how good it was." I said.

She asked, "How come you never went there then?"

"Because I don't visit Central Park that often." I saw a dirt path in front of us so I snapped my board up and grabbed it by the trucks.

We walked in slightly awkward silence, before Annabeth decided to break the tension. "How was school today?" She asked, changing the subject

"It was good, kind of boring, but yeah it was a normal Friday. How was your day?" I asked in return.

Her eyes lit up. "We have this really cool project we have to do in Architecture class which is redesigning the Empire State Building and I already have so many ideas and I don't know exactly what I'm going to design yet but I already know the base of it for sure and I was thinking that maybe that I could make the architecture have maybe a more greek or roman style and-" She stopped herself, flushing slightly. "Sorry, you probably bored yourself to death during my speech."

I shrugged, chuckling. "Sure, I may not be interested very much in Architecture, I find it cool that you wanna be an architect." I paused and glanced at her quizzingly, "Why do you want to be an architect?"

She hesitated, staring at me for a moment unsurely before talking, "It's because I want to build something permanent. I'm sick and tired of people leaving me in life, and maybe creating something that might last will help."

I stared at her in silence, shocked as we walked. "Wow. I didn't know you had it bad. You kind of always appear in control of your life, and just, you know, living it."

She looked away for a moment, a tint of red appearing on her golden tan cheeks. "And just, you know, living it." She mocked. I shouldered her softly, and she returned with a shoulder that made me think that she turned into the hulk.

"Damn," I said as I rubbed my shoulder, "didn't know you were that good at shouldering. Where'd you learn?"

She smirked. "One time at the library, I saw a book that was about self-defense. I ended up reading it a hundred times and then taught myself all of the moves."

I raised my eyebrows at her, impressed. "You basically taught yourself self-defense without an instructor and without anyone to practice on?"

"Yes," She said proudly lifting her chin slightly higher. "I can even judo flip someone."

"Well, you might wanna get someone else to get ice cream with, because I am slowly getting intimidated by you." I said as I back away from her jokingly.

She rolled her grey eyes and slapped me (softly) on the shoulder as I walked closer to her, chuckling. We slowed to a stop once we saw the café, which was simple and had a cozy feeling to it, like you could come in here all soaking wet from the fountains and they'd provide you a blanket and hot cocoa with extra marsh mellows. There weren't many people there, just a couple of families and some other people, but the café looked mostly empty.

Annabeth let out a sigh of relief, "Oh good. There aren't as many people as I expected."

I tilted my head as we pushed the doors, entering the café and getting a place in the line for ice cream. "Why, is it too full when a lot of people are here?" I asked.

She nodded, "Not only that, but it's nearly impossible to order when it's full. They don't have many waiters so you'll see the same 6 people running around the café taking orders while a child screams because they didn't get the right ice cream."

"You speak from experience." I commented as we neared the front of the line. The line wasn't that long, thankfully.

She deadpanned, "Tell me about it." And grabbed a 20 dollar bill from her pocket.

"Wait, I should pay." I said as I searched for my wallet in my back pocket. I didn't find it there, so I checked my other back pocket, trying to find it. "Damnit." I whispered as I checked my other pocket.

While I searched for my wallet, Annabeth had already begun protesting, talking about how society always says that the guy should be the one to pay but what if she wanted to pay, until she noticed the look of panic on my face.

"Hey," She frowned. "What happened?"

I sighed as I took off my backpack and searched for my wallet. "I can't find my wallet." I said as I pulled out my books.

"Let me help you." She didn't wait for an answer and immediately started searching for my wallet with me until I remembered where I left it and I facepalmed myself. "What is it?" She asked.

I sighed, "I left it in my locker." I mumbled, sighing again before putting my books back and putting on my back pack.

"How are you going back home?" She asked me. I resisted the urge to slap myself again, knowing that I'd have to skate back to the apartment instead of riding the subway, and that can take me up to two hours or more to get back home, and while I love skating, I am way too tired to skate for two hours straight.

"Guess I'll just skate back home." I shrugged while I said this.

"Do you live near?" She asked, crossing her arms.

"Not exactly. It'd take me around two hours to skate back."

She pursed her lips before saying. "You can come with me. Luke's gonna pick me up in his car and I'm sure he'd be more than willing to drop you off."

"No!" I exclaimed a little too loudly. A couple of people near us stared at us weirdly, and I smiled sheepishly at the them. I glanced back at Annabeth, who was calmly looking at me. "I mean, no thanks, I appreciate it, I really do, but I really like skating so I'm perfectly fine with skating for two hours."

She looked at me doubtingly. "Are you sure? Luke and I are fine with taking you home."

I nodded, trying to act honest. "Yes, I'm sure." She looked at me curiously for a second, before a flash of realization appeared and then she stared at me with that sad look in her eyes that was gone in a flash. Before I could say anything about it the cashier called us and asked us what was our order. During the time that we ordered I completely forget about that sad look and became more focused on choosing the right ice cream flavor by trying every single one and then choosing the blueberry ice cream.

As we walked to a booth, Annabeth looked at me and rolled her eyes. "You dork. The only reason you asked for all of those samples was to get free ice cream."

I shrugged, smiling slyly. "Maybe," I said as we sat down across from each other.

"Seaweed Brain," She mumbled softly, as if not wanting me to hear.

I raised an eyebrow at her, even though she couldn't see it because of the hoodie. "Seaweed Brain?" I asked incredulously.

A tint of red red appeared on her cheeks. "What? Why are you acting so offended? That's exactly what you are." She said smoothly.

"Oh really? You think you're such a Wise Girl?"

"Wise Girl?" She asked me, smiling slyly. "Is that really the best you can do?"

"Shut up." I retorted. "It sounded better in my head." She laughed, then ate a spoonful of her strawberry ice cream.

I ate a spoonful of my ice cream and my eyes widened, I didn't know that it was that the ice cream was gonna be that good, so I ate another spoonful and before I'd even fully dug a spoonful my mouth watered and I immediately brought it to my mouth, licking my lips and repeating the process 5 more times before Annabeth teased me, "I didn't know that you were that hungry."

I stopped with a spoonful already in my mouth and sheepishly smiled, feeling a bit of blood rush to my face, thanking whatever deity is up there for having tan skin and a hoodie that covered most of my face. I swallowed and mumbled a quick sorry before grabbing another spoonful, this time controlling myself more than before so I could speak to her.

"I'm a growing boy," I said, digging out another spoonful and sticking my tongue out at her. She stuck her tongue right back at me, then took another bite.

I swallowed and asked., "Have you ever been to a music festival before?"

She shook her head then shrugged. "I've never really been interested in them before. Luke said they're very rowdy, and I probably wouldn't like it."

"What?" My eyes widened in disbelief. "Why would he say that? Going to a music festival is fucking awesome."

She raised her eyebrows rather hesitantly. "Really?"

I nodded vigorously, and stopped eating for a moment to tell her all about the fantastic things. "Seeing the artist, or band, whatever you see, is so amazing because the person who's music you admire is standing on a stage, singing a song that you love, and then you notice that they're a person, just like you, who does ordinary things, just like you, who has feelings, just like you, and the event is just so humanizing and it's filled with adrenaline and it's just-"

I stopped when I noticed she was trying not to smirk, and she tried to cover her smirk with her hand once she noticed I stopped. "Hey. You're laughing at me."

She accidentally let out a small giggle, the corners of her mouth turning up. "Of course the person you're seeing is human, Percy." She laughed again.

I blushed a bit, and thanked god that I had really tan skin. "Shut up." She let a small giggle out again, before she composed herself and cleared her throat. "Anyways, my point is that I highly recommend going to a music festival. Sure, sometimes people push you a lot, or it might smell heavily of marijuana, or some guy might steal from you, or maybe someone might be completely wasted, and there might be floating condoms in the crowd-" At this she raised her eyebrow "-whatever bad happens, is completely worth the experience. Trust me. I've been to a couple, and I can say that they've been the best days of my life."

"Well," She concluded. "I might have to go to one soon." I smiled, glad that I convinced her. I started to shove more ice cream down my mouth, savoring every mouthful. This truly was delicious, but it probably couldn't beat my mom's blue cookies.

"Anyways," She started, gulping down a mouthful of her ice cream. "How many schools have you been to?"

I hesitated slightly before telling her."Eight schools."

"Eight?!" She exclaimed. Her expression was very comical, and she kind of looked like a surprised owl.

"Yep." I confirmed. "But it's because I have really, really bad luck. I didn't bully anyone or commit a crime or anything." I defended myself.

"Really?" She sounded slightly relieved.

"Yeah, trust me. One time, in fifth grade, we went to an aquarium and basically we were on the catwalk and I accidentally pulled the wrong lever and the next thing we know we're swimming with sharks."

"What?" She exclaimed disbelievingly.

I raised my hands in defense. "At least they were friendly sharks! They didn't bite us or anything!"

Annabeth sighed and smacked her palm against her forehead. "Percy.."

"And this other time, we were at a museum in fourth grade, and I accidentally shot a cannon from the revolutionary war at the school bus."

"What?" She once again exclaimed disbelievingly. "Percy, why the hell would you even point a cannon at a school bus?"

"It's not my fault! How the hell was I supposed to know that it was fully functioning and was loaded? Why was it even loaded in the first place?!" I exclaimed back.

Annabeth sighed. "Oh Percy..." She looked at me and started giggling abruptly. Soon her giggles turned into full out laughs.

"What?" I asked, feeling a bit of blood rush to my cheeks. I quickly turned my spoon over and looked at the reflection to check if I had something on my face, but I didn't see anything different. "What? What is it?" I questioned again.

She kept on laughing until she started to calm down. She answered my question when she could speak without wheezing too hard. "How-how the hell do those things happen to you?" She asked between breaths. She had calmed down a bit from her sudden attack of laughter, but was still smiling wide. I was also smiling wide, since I had started laughing soon after her because her laugh was very contagious and I couldn't help myself.

"Pure, rotten, horrible luck." I said, chuckling bittersweetly.

We'd finished eating our ice cream but we continued talking, we talked about our past, school, our current life, skate (her brothers skate), and so much more. We talked for so long, that when Annabeth checked the time, we realized that we'd been talking for two hours straight.

We stood up, thanking the waiter who was relieved to hear that we were finally going to leave, and exchanged snapchats. Before I left, Annabeth said, "Wait, didn't you say that you'd have to skate for two hours to get home?"

"Yeah." I snapped my board and caught it with my hand.

"You know I can take you to your house. It's really no big deal." She offered, taking her phone out of her pocket.

"I really appreciate the offer but I can skate back home. It's no problem." I said, spinning my board.

She looked rather reluctant, "Are you sure? It's totally fine, by the way." She kept pushing.

"No really," I said, getting a little nervous. I didn't want her to see where I lived, it's quite poor and its' quite dangerous and she probably might end up judging me really hard and decide to not be my friend any more, and I don't want that to happen because I find her pretty cool, I can't let that happen. "It's fine."

She sighed, "I guess this is goodbye." She smiled, her gray eyes sparkling. "I had a really awesome time." She genuinely said.

I smiled. "Me too."

After a beat, a cherry red ferrari came speeding at us. It was a beautiful ferrari, one of those that only millionares have with their engines roaring and the car gleaming. The ferrari rolled it's windows down and lo and behold Luke Castellan was the driver.

"Hey babe." He said, wearing his designer sunglasses. Why the hell would you wear sunglasses at night? Isn't that dangerous? He got out of the car and walked to her, putting his hands on her butt and started shoving his tongue down her throat. I waited for him to stop making out with her, looking down at my board and acting interested in it while they made out, until I decided to interrupt them by clearing my throat.

Annabeth put her hands on his chest and started to push him away, but he grabbed her hands and stopped her, before squeezing her butt and then pulling away. "Hey." He greeted me, before looking back at Annabeth and continued talking to her. "Babe, tomorrow we're going to a bar and we're gonna have to use our fake ids." He told her.

"Where are we going to go?" Annabeth asked.

"It's a bar that Ethan found. Said that it was dope." He ran his hand through his hair as he explained this. Not letting Annabeth say something, her grabbed her hand and led her to his car. "Let's go." He said, making it clear that they were leaving.

Annabeth glanced back at me apologetically, smiling sheepishly. "Bye Percy!" She said, waving at me.

"Bye Annabeth." I said back at her. She went around the other side and started to open the door of the car while I waved at Luke who had already entered his car and was looking at the road in front of him not wanting to be an asshole like he's being. He looked at me and smirked, then looked back at the road, completely ignoring me. I gave him the finger.

Once Annabeth was in the car they sped away, the engine roaring and the car gleaming. I sighed as I set down my skateboard to skate back home. This was going to be a long ride.

* * *

"Ugh." I said as I entered the apartment, my hoodie and beanie off. Michael, Beck, and Silena were all sitting down on the watching reruns of Parks and Recreation, while Will and Lee were cooking food. By cooking I mean microwaving some bought food.

"What took you so long?" Michael asked, staring at the TV.

"I ended up running into a friend at Central Park, and we stayed there talking for hours. We hadn't realized it was late until she checked her phone, and I forgot my wallet at my locker, so I couldn't get back home using the subway and I ended up skating two hours to get here." I told them as I took off my beanies and plopped on the couch next to Michael. It was a big couch and it had a lot of stains and it was patched up a lot of times and it kind of looks like it was someone's grandma's old couch, but hey, at least it was comfy.

"Well shit." Michael said, sharing his empathy. "Sucks to be you."

"Thanks. I feel so loved."

"What happened to your beanie Percy?" Beck asked, Silena sitting on his lap as always.

"Oh, I was riding my skateboard and I took it off since I started to sweat a lot." I explained, grabbing it out of my pocket and showing it to Beck. He glanced at it and nodded, then continued watching Parks and Recreation.

"Corn dogs are ready!" Will yelled, coming over to use with a plate filled with corn dogs. There must have been around two dozen corn dogs, steaming hot a releasing a smell that made my mouth water. Everyone whooped, thanking Will for microwaving the corndogs. He set them on the coffee table, before sitting down on and old lounge chair that we just bought off of craigslist. I grabbed a corn dog and immediately started devouring it, but had to stop a couple times because the corn dog was too hot.

"Where is my thanks?" Lee asked, walking out of the bathroom. "I bought them!" He said as he grabbed one and sat down on the bean bag that we had, which was also bought off of craigslist.

"You are our father, our savior, the mother fucking god of corn dogs. All hail Lee." Michael deadpanned, before taking a huge bite of his corn dog and then opening his mouth and exclaiming "Haud, haud, haud," while exhaling and moving his hand up and down in front of his mouth in an attempt to blow wind at the food.

"Karma." Lee calmly said while taking a smaller bite of his corn dog.

Silena rolled her eyes, grabbing a corn dog. "Dorks." She said while smiling almost fondly.

"So who's the friend that you ran into today, Perce?" Beck asked me.

"Oh, the girl who tutors me."

"Ohh, the girl who invited you to her house? The girl you like?" Michael said, smiling like the little shit he is.

"Shut up." I said, blushing. I could feel the blood rush to my cheeks, and I don't know how many times I've thought this today, but once again, I'm glad I have tan skin. "I don't like her."

"You like a girl Percy?!" Silena exclaimed. "How come you didn't tell me before? Is she pretty? Is she nice? Is she smart?" Silena fired off, her eyes gleaming and a huge, teasing smile on her face.

"I don't like her." I repeated, blushing even more. "Besides, she has a boyfriend."

Silena's eyes lit up. "So you would date her if she were single!"

"No! No, no. You're not listening. I don't like her. She's just a friend that I just made and just so happens to have a very assholish boyfriend who I strongly dislike and she is an overall good friend."

She smiled, her dimples showing and her blue eyes sparkling. "What's her name?"

I stared at her questioningly, but answered anyways. "Annabeth."

She stuck out her tongue a little, a thoughtful expression appearing on her face before suddenly, her face lit up and she gasped and she exclaimed, "Percabeth!"

At first I didn't understand but then it dawned on me. Percabeth is our couple name. My eyes widened and my mouth dropped. I blinked a couple times before exclaiming, "What?!" Percabeth?"

Silena nodded, jumping off of Beck's lap. "Percabeth!" She said in a sing-song voice, twirling around. I looked at Beck, and put on my baby seal eyes, pleading help.

Beck sighed, before calling for Silena's attention. She turned around still smiling, her blue eyes still sparkling. "Babe, Percabeth won't happen, Percy doesn't like her."

Silena still smiled, as if that didn't bother her at all, "Oh, you'll see." She said in a mysterious voice, winking at Beck, then at me, then sitting back down on Beck's lap and continued eating her untouched corn dog.

"So," Will started, straightening on his Kiss The Chef apron that he had on. "Just to be clear, tomorrow we'll rehearse the songs that we are going to play in the morning, pick up Leo, eat out together, rehearse a little more, then go to Caduceus?"

A chorus of 'yeah' and 'yes's were said, then Will continued. "And another thing the songs that we are going to play."

"We've gotta start off with a banger since there are going to be even more people this time, so let's go with Highway to Hell as our first song, It's a Hard life, after, and then We will rock you?" Lee suggested.

"I say that we should perform Don't Stop Me Now, after Highway To Hell, and then perform It's a Hard Life after We will rock you." I said. The rest agreed, thinking that that arrangement was better.

"How about Rock and Roll, Dancing Days, Fat Bottomed Girls, TNT, and then as always Good Riddance." Beck said, grabbing his second corn dog.

"Yeah, let's do that." Michael agreed. We were ready to perform another show.

* * *

 **Annabeth POV (A/N Surprised, right? Me too. I am very sleepy.)**

 **(Saturday)**

"Take out your Fake ID." Luke whispered to me. We were approaching the bouncer and Luke had already taken the tickets out of his pockets and passing it to the rest of us. By 'us' I mean Jason, Thalia, Piper, Reyna, Drew, Ethan, Chris, Grover, Khione, and Jake were all in line to enter a bar named Caduceus. Apparently, Ethan had heard about it from one of his friends that were in college went here and said it was pretty cool, but it was a 21+ bar, so we had to grab our Fake IDs to enter.

There was music playing inside, sounding very rock. There was a band playing live tonight named Blue Cherry Coke and they made the crowd go insane, from what I've been hearing. Luke had to buy tickets just so we could have a table to sit down at the bar.

The bouncer let us in and immediately once we entered, we noticed how full the place was. "How are we supposed to find a place to sit down at?" Piper asked behind me looking around in shock. The placed was filled to the brim, there were people in a pit jumping up and down, there were people who sat on top of other people, there were people standing up, the place was incredibly loud, waiters scurrying around trying to not bump into anybody, the place was pretty much an animal house.

"Over here!" Chris said, seeing a huge table that had a reserved sign on it. I sighed relieved and we all went to sit down. I sat in between Piper and Thalia, with Luke sitting at the head of the table. We listened to the music, which was really, really good.

"This band is pretty damn good." Piper yelled over the music, bobbing her head to the beat.

"Yeah!" Thalia agreed. "What was their name again?"

"Blue Cherry Coke!" I replied. I started looking at the band, who were playing a pretty good song. The lead singer was attractive and absolutely marvelous, singing in a very unique voice and getting the crowd to jump and dance and hitting all the right notes, chanting TNT repeatedly. I looked at the rest of the members, the drummer who was buff and very good and kind of bounced up and down, as if he were feeling the beat in his bones, the bassist who was also attractive helped sing and was amazing at the bass, a guitarist who was good looking and looked like the bassist who also helped sing, and the other guitarist who was the most handsome out of all of them, playing the guitar amazingly and seemed familiar. Then it hit me.

"Oh my god." I said, standing up abruptly, making everyone at our table look at me.

"What's wrong?" Reyna asked.

"That's Percy Jackson."

"What?" Grover asked, looking at the band. "Oh my god." He said with an incredulous expression on his face. "I can't believe it."

"Who is it?" Drew asked turning around and looking at the band.

"He's the very hot guitarist." Piper said, staring at him in shock.

"Damn." Drew said, impressed and eyes wandering up and down his body. He had his shirt off showing off his tattoos, defined 6-pack abs and a very impressive v-line and back. "10/10 would hook up with him." She whistled. Even Reyna was a little starstruck.

"Impossible." Luke said, almost furious. "How the hell can that fucker be in a band?"

Ethan shrugged. "I don't know. I bet he's terrible at playing the guitar."

Luke smirked. "Yeah. He's probably not even playing and it's only the other blonde dude playing."

I rolled my eyes at his childish behaviour. "I'm going to go see him." I said, pushing my seat in. Thalia, Drew, Piper, Khione, and Reyna also stood up which made Jason, Grover and Chris stand up too.

"What?! No! You guys stay here, he's nothing special!" Luke exclaimed. I rolled my eyes again at him and started walking away with the rest. He's been such an asshole lately.

We walked closer to the stage, having to push a bit and avoid being stepped on, but eventually we got close enough to the stage. I could see Percy better now, and I could tell that he was not bald at all, and had gorgeous green eyes. "Oh, he can use his fingers," Drew commented aloud, smirking lustfully at Percy.

All of the sudden, Percy started playing a guitar solo, barely looking at his guitar, almost feeling the chords. He rocked the stage, making the crowd go wild and he played a few more complicated chords barely glancing at his guitar. He finished the solo and the singer immediately started singing the chorus again, Percy yelled the chorus and played his guitar, making people join. They continued with the chorus until Percy started playing another solo, even better and longer than the last one, running around stage while playing and then suddenly ending the song with a bang. The crowd went wild, chanting "BCC!" repeatedly. Percy smiled crookedly, screaming and raising his guitar.

"Wow." Thalia breathed.

"He's amazing." Grover continued for her.

Percy took off his guitar and put it on a guitar rack that they had and changed it for a black acoustic guitar. The singer thanked the crowd and put the microphone back on the stand for Percy. Percy approached the microphone and spoke, "Hey guys!" The crowd went wild again. Percy waited until they calmed down. "So uh, I'm gonna sing a song that you probably all know. Can you guys guess it?" The crowd shouted Good Riddance. Percy laughed. "Didn't think you guys would guess it that fast."

"He sings too?! He's the total package." Drew said, practically drooling.

Percy started playing the guitar and after a moment started singing, leaving us awestruck. "Are you sure that's really him?" Khione, who I forget was here, asked me.

"Yeah." I replied, watching in awe how started playing a solo on the guitar, which was also amazing, before singing the chorus again and ending the song.

"We're Blue Cherry Coke and you guys are fucking awesome! Thank you so much!" Percy said into the mic before the band left the stage. A lot of people in the bar started to leave, but I wanted to find Percy. I needed answers.

"I'm going back to the table. Bye!" Khione said, Chris and Drew deciding to accompany her. They left and we were left alone.

"I'm going to find Percy. I don't know about you guys." I said, cutting to the Chase.

"We're coming with you." Grover said, already looking for Percy.

"Okay, let's go then." I said. We started searching the bar, looking for Percy up and down until I finally spot a booth that had the band there, with Leo Valdez and some other girl I didn't know. "Piper look." I said and Piper looked at the booth.

"That's them." Thalia said.

"Come on." I said speed walking up to them. They were all laughing at something the second guitarist said, apparently to Leo (Leo? What is he doing here?), but I didn't mind interrupting them. I stood in front of them and said, "Percy?!

They all stopped laughing and stared at me. "Oh shit." Percy said.

* * *

 **Yep. I ended that on a cliffhanger. SOrry if the ending was terrible**

 **~TheMistressOfSass or Valentina or whatevery the fuck.**


	7. Of Solos and Crowds

**Well hello. First of all, I am so fucking sorry. I'm really fucking sorry. I really have no excuse or anything. I'm sorry for not updating. Second of all, I promised to update more frequently... And I'm going to (probably)! I will try to update at least once a month (not sure), and who knows(next time I update will be next year)? Maybe if I have enough time, I'll update twice a month (yeah right) ! But I'm not gonna promise updating twice a month, cause I can barely do once a month. Well, I'll stop blabbling now and continue on with the story! Yet again, thanks to WolfEffect for helping me as always and being the amazing friend he is! Please go check him out!**

 **Disclaimer: Not owner of any of the songs, book, or tv show that is mentioned!**

 **Percy POV**

 **(Starts before the band performs)**

When we entered the bar I immediately noticed that the bar was already crowded, even if it was only six at the moment which was quite early for a late night bar. I saw some people sitting in stools and on tables and I noticed that the place in front of the stage had no tables, meaning there was a huge, space and some people were already waiting in the front which surprised me. We weren't playing for another three hours, and there were already people waiting for us to play? That absolutely baffled me.

"Are they waiting for us?" I asked. I didn't believe it. There was no way that we had fans that were willing to wait for so long just to see us, Beck looked around, seeing one person holding a huge poster saying _BLUE CHERRY COKE_ who was sitting down at a table. Another person who was sitting on a stool at the bar had a blue coke can painted on her cheek.

"I think so." Beck said, just as awed as me.

"No fucking way," Michael said.

"Impossible." Lee said.

We walked across the floor and noticed even more people with more things, like wearing customized shirts, holding flags, face paint, wearing customized hats, etc. A couple of people stopped us and asked for a few photos, or autographs, or a hug, and the feeling was just so damn amazing I couldn't believe that so many people liked us and how there eyes shined in a special way which made me feel so warm inside and I realized that _we_ caused their eyes to shine and _we_ caused them to be so happy and _we_ inspired them and I think I've never been happier than those minutes of walking across the bar and meeting all of our fans, an indescribable feeling of knowing that these people look up to you, these people like your songs, they support us and it feels like I've finally accomplished something.

We were stopped by at least twenty people before we finally reached the door of the break/practice room, where we noticed a big star with the words _Blue Cherry Coke_ in fancy lettering on it. "No way." Lee whispered. He opened the door to find Hermes sitting on the couch grinning like a cheshire cat.

"Boys!" He exclaimed excitedly. "You don't know how grateful I am for you to play here!" He sat up and squished us all into an uncomfortable bear hug, seemingly not letting us go.

"Um, Hermes? You might wanna let go now?" Beck asked, looking very uncomfortable and tried to escape the hug. See, Beck's not the biggest fan of hugs. He's okay with Silena hugging him but anyone else who tries to hug him will receive a black eye if they don't let go soon. (Happened once, was brutal). Hermes smiled apologetically and let go of us, wisely walking a few steps away from Beck.

"So, want to tell us why you're so happy?" Will asked, walking towards the couch and sitting down.

Hermes rubbed his hands together like a little kid who was just told his parents got him an X-Box. "So, you guys just sold out the entire bar, and so many people are coming that we had to make space for a special pit for people who just want to see you guys perform."

He waited for the information to sink in, with an almost mischievous grin at the information he told us, his eyes practically twinkling. It hadn't fully sunk in. I heard the words but I hadn't processed it yet, instead I stayed in shock, not sure if this was actually happening. "What." Beck said, no emotion showing on his face.

Hermes gulped, appearing quite never at our reactions, which were unresponsive. He pulled at the collar of his shirt, "Well, um-"

"That is fucking insane." Lee said, his mouth open and his jaw practically touching the ground. I would've laughed at him if it weren't for the fact that I was starting to process the information and oh my god wait how is this happening how the hell this is impossible we couldn't possibly sell out in a matter of months I don't understand this what no this only happens in movies and-

"No way!" Will practically shouted, a grin lighting up his face and his blue eyes shining, his voice breaking my train of thought.

"That's not possible."

"How?"

"Why?"

"This seriously just happened? I'm not imagining it?" I said, more to my self than anyone else. I ran my hand through my hair, a grin plastered on my face. I wonder if my mom is looking down at me right now, swelling in pride, and fully supporting me. If she were here, she would have hugged me, made me blue cookies, and told me that she was proud of me. I smiled this time, more warmly, tears in my eyes that hopefully no one will notice. I wiped my eyes with my hand and chanted what I've always said to myself since my mom died to keep me going, ' _I'm doing this for you'_ inside my head.

"We should celebrate!" Silena said, stopping my train of thought. "Oooh, I know, we could open a bottle of champagne! Or we could go on a road trip! Maybe we could go to the Bahamas! Maybe-"

Beck chuckled, "Babe, I think we'll stick to opening a bottle of champagne."

Silena huffed and crossed her arms. "Fine, but it's going to be a _good_ bottle of champagne."

"Of course." Beck said, pulling Silena in and hugging her.

"You know what?" Leo said, pulling out his phone and swiping. I hated him. "I'm going to make you guys a band instagram account that I'll manage so you can take a photo of you and the crowd when you're on stage and publish it." He said, typing something in.

"That's a great idea!" Silena commented.

"Plus, it will get you a lot of bonus points when a scouting agent checks your instagram to see how many places you have played at and how full they are. It'll make them want to sign a record deal with you in no time." Leo looked up from his phone and grinned. "And, it will attract the ladies once they find out that the guy who is running the instagram account is the hottest of them all." He flipped his hair and pulled on one of his suspenders and continued typing. I rolled my eyes at him.

"Anyways," Silena started clasping her hands together. "You should start changing! I picked out a some more revealing things tonight, I hope you like them." She said, with an almost evil grin, as if she were about to break into an evil laugh at any moment now. That is _not_ good news. We all practically exhaled at the same time. It's not that we don't like the clothes she chooses for us, it's just they're uncomfortable. They're skin tight, sometimes made out of latex (Michael was forced to where black latex jeans, we called him Condom Legs for the rest of the night) and hard to move in. Hopefully, this time they're more comfortable clothes.

I walked to over the dress rack dreading the worst. I looked for the clothes named Percy, and I could only find some ripped baggy denim jeans. "Hey Silena, I think you forgot to get a shirt for me." I said as I showed her the jeans.

She smirked. "Oh no, I didn't forget. That's what you're supposed to wear tonight."

I pouted. "But Sil," I said, trying to use one of the many pet names Beck has for Silena, trying to convince her.

"Nope." She said, shaking her head and crossing her arms. "You want to grab the audience's attention? Then show off you're abs!"

"But-"

"No." She said firmly.

I exhaled, defeated. "Fine." Silena looked around before exiting the room so we could change. I looked around the room. "No one has latex?"

"Thankfully, no." Michael said, putting on a flannel shirt that looks like it had the sleeves ripped off (which probably were) and black shorts.

Beck finished changing in practically 30 seconds (how? Well, we think it's because of the amount of times he had to change rapidly from a make out session with Silena before we entered the room) wearing a black tank top that says 'TKNEA' in white letters, contrasting dark the black background and shorts. "Look at what Silena is making me wear." he said, pointing to the text. "Taken." He clarified for me once he saw my face. He sat down on the couch and grabbed some drumsticks on the coffee table and started playing a random beat on the table.

"And I look gay." Will said pulling at a purple vest he had on and white jeans.

"You are gay." Lee said, struggling to put on black skinny jeans.

"I know. That's why I like my outfit." Will smirked. "Besides, I invited Nico to come watch us."

"Oh because of the 'doctor's orders' thing?" Beck said, and rolled his eyes. "I swear to god if you keep on flirting like that with him I am going to ask for our boss to move me away from the counter."

"What do you mean by doctor's orders?" I asked, taking off my jeans and starting to put on the ones Silena gave me and started to take off my shirt.

Beck rolled his eyes. "Nico visited the music store again today and Will noticed he had a cold and started flirting hard, like it looked like they were going to make out in the store with him, and told about he went to med school and studied to be a doctor, and how he was under doctor's orders to stay near him at all times so he could ensure that he gets better and he ended up inviting him to the show, apparently."

"Ask him out already." Michael told Will.

"I'm planning to today." Will answered. "But he's quite shy, so we won't be official for what I predict will be a couple more weeks." He paused. "But, I honestly don't care if we're announcing it to the world immediately. He's really cool, and he's got this thing about him that's different from other guys." Will smiled, dazed.

"Are you sure he's gay?" I asked.

"Yes. If he wasn't, then he wouldn't have flirted back, or given me his number." Will said, running his hand through his hair. "I don't know about you guys, but I need to go warm up." Will stood up and walked to the keyboard to warm up, grabbing a water bottle on his way.

"I'll go help." I said, buttoning my jeans and walking towards Will. We practiced for a while, harmonizing, playings keys in the keyboard and matching our voices to the sound, drank a whole water bottle and did a couple breathing exercises. In the middle of an exercise, Will stops and his eyes grow wide.

"I just got the best idea ever." He gasped. "During Don't Stop Me Now, the part where Beck is playing the small drum solo, I'll walk down the stage, find Nico, then sing to him until the song ends and ask him out." He clapped his hands and rubbed them in excitement.

I shrugged. "Sure. Just, don't make the guy feel too pressured. Like don't point the microphone at him or anything, 'cause that's kind of rude."

Will nodded. "You're right."

"Go tell Leo so he can work the lights out when you ask Nico out."

Will scrunched his eyebrows up, looking for Leo in the room. "He's not here. Do you have any idea about where he could be?"

That's weird. Normally Leo reviewing the set list and making sure the lights work. I searched for Leo in the room, and then realization hit me.

"Oh," I realized. "he's probably flirting with some one outside, most likely the hottest girl he can find and make her join 'Team Leo.'" I said, rolling my eyes.

"I'm guessing that happens frequently." Will said, smirking a little.

"You'd be surprised." I scoffed. "Last time, he started flirting with one of the girls in school who didn't speak english very well and when Leo asked her if she wanted to join Team Leo, she thought he asked he she could give him head, and slapped him. Hard. It was hilarious."

Will laughed, throwing his head back. "Does he flirt with every girl he sees?"

I nodded. "Pretty much. But every single girl rejects him."

Will chuckled again, then stopped. "That's kind of sad, when you think about it."

I raised one shoulder. "Yeah, but he doesn't really care. He just keeps trying. He's very insistent."

"I can tell."

Michael walked over to us and interrupted us suddenly, "Are you guys gonna practice with us? Or are you going to just stand there all day?" Michael asked, shifting his weight to one foot, crossing his arms and popping his hip, 4'6 stature full of sass.

"We'll be right there." Will said, "We just need to finish one more singing exercise and then we'll go practice with you guys."

"Try to hurry up." Michael said before leaving to where Beck and Lee were standing a few feet away.

Will and I purposefully slowly finished a couple more singing exercises while Michael glared at us from across the room. We did even more breathing exercises (that were totally unnecessary before walking slowly to where the others were.

"I fucking hate you two." Michael said, grabbing his guitar. "Especially you, Percy. I know it was your idea."

"Why thank you, I'm flattered." I deadpanned, grabbing my own guitar and slinging it over my left shoulder. "Alright, Don't Stop Me Now from the top ready?" I paused, making sure that everyone had their instruments ready. "1, 2, 3, go!"

* * *

We climbed the stage, freshened up and filled with nervous energy. We heard the crowd roar as we walked across the stage to our instruments, and as I slung my guitar across my shoulders, I looked at how many people were in the bar. In front of us, there was a small pit of people who were screaming and some were painted blue and were all smashed together and looked so exited to see us there. I smiled, feeling a little bit proud and amazed that so many people would come to see us. And then I looked and the people who were sitting at the tables who were also shouting, but not as excitedly as the people in the pit. The tables were also crowded with people standing up and cheering, heck I saw one guy standing on top of a table. Hermes isn't going to like that bit. All in all, the place was overflowing with our fans.

I heard Will say a small 'Wow' that the mic caught. Wow indeed, Will. "Alright, alright, alright." Will said, smiling. The crowd silenced a bit once they heard Will talk, but then started shouting again immediately. "Who's ready to have the best night of their fucking lives!?" Will shouted into the mic, and it seemed like the fans wanted to compete against on who could shout the loudest and shouted even louder than Will, who's mic was connected to an amplifier.

"Shit," Will said excitedly, chuckling a bit. He signaled for Michael to start on the piano, and Don't Stop Me Now commenced.

 _Tonight, I'm gonna have myself I real good time,_

 _I feel alive, and the world I'll turn it inside out yeah,_

 _I'm floating around, in ecstasy so don't. Stop. Me. Now,_

Michael, Lee and I harmonized the don't stop me now part.

 _Don't stop me_

 _Cause I'm_

Beckendorf entered,

 _Having a good time,_

 _Having a good time_ , Michael, Lee, and I harmonized again.

 _I'm a shooting star,_ Will started to run through the stage, the crowd singing along.

 _leaping through the sky_  
 _Like a tiger defying the laws of gravity_  
 _I'm a racing car passing by like Lady Godiva_  
 _I'm gonna go go go_  
 _There's no stopping me_

 _I'm burnin' through the sky yeah!_  
 _Two hundred degrees_  
 _That's why they call me Mister Fahrenheit_  
 _I'm trav'ling at the speed of light_  
 _I wanna make a supersonic man out of you,_ I saw Will suddenly make eye contact and wink at a guy in the very back, wearing different shades of black, sitting on a stool in the bar as if he were sulking because he just broke up with some one. I saw Will start to make his way over to him, a lot more flirtatious-like and staring at him the whole time.

 _Don't stop me now I'm having such a good time,_ Will sung with power and emotion.  
 _I'm having a ball_  
 _Don't stop me now_  
 _If you wanna have a good time just give me a call_  
 _Don't stop me now ('Cause I'm having a good time)_  
 _Don't stop…_

 _I'm a rocket ship on my way to Mars_  
 _On a collision course_  
 _I am a satellite I'm out of control_  
 _I am a sex machine ready to reload_  
 _Like an atom bomb about to_  
 _Oh oh oh oh oh explode_

 _I'm burning through the sky Yeah!_  
 _Two hundred degrees_  
 _That's why they call me Mister Fahrenheit_  
 _I'm trav'ling at the speed of light_  
 _I wanna make a supersonic woman of you,_ Beck played a small solo on the drums, the crowd clapping in time with the beat. Will had advanced to the edge of the stage and jumped off, making the crowd scream and Leo purposefully stopped shining the spotlight one Will as Will made his way through the crowd, to Nico.

 _Don't stop me_ , Michael, Lee and I sang while Will searched for Nico.  
 _Don't stop me_  
 _Don't stop me_  
 _Hey hey hey!_

 _Don't stop me_  
 _Don't stop me_  
 _Ooh ooh ooh (I like it)_ Will finally sang into his mic, and Leo started shining the lights on Will who was now on top of the bar, smiling and singing to Nico.

 _Don't stop me_  
 _Don't stop me_  
 _Have a good time, good time_

 _Don't stop me_  
 _Don't stop me_

 _Ooh ooh_ I started to play the guitar solo, and felt the crowds eye's turn to me, making me a little nervous. I took a deep breath and concentrated, jumping on a box on the stage and played my heart was a short solo, first solo of the night, so I was still kind of nervous. Yet as I played the guitar for so many people who, dare I say, admired me, sang the lyrics, and attempted to sing the solo, I felt right at home.

 _Ooh I'm burning through the sky yeah!_ Will sang, and I felt the nerves go away.  
 _Two hundred degrees_  
 _That's why they call me Mister Fahrenheit_  
 _I'm trav'ling at the speed of light_  
 _I wanna make a supersonic man out of you_ Will pointed at Nico, who seemed like he did not like the attention he had from everyone, shrinking away as if trying to hide. I felt kind of bad for him, he probably didn't really like attention.

 _Don't stop me now_  
 _I'm having such a good time_  
 _I'm having a ball_  
 _Don't stop me now_  
 _If you wanna have a good time_  
 _Just give me a call_

 _Don't stop me now ('cause I'm having a good time)_  
 _Don't stop me now (yes I'm having a good time)_  
 _I don't wanna stop at all,_ Will sang the final word, dropping down to his knees and grinning at Nico.

"So," Will said through the mic as Michael continued playing the outro. "will you go out with me?" Will grinned. If I hadn't known Will, I would've said he was very confident at the moment, sure that Nico would say yes. But I saw the small amount of fear he hid behind his eyes, afraid that he might get rejected and humiliated like last time. To clarify, the last time Will asked a guy out, he got rejected. Hard. The guy he asked out started yelling at him, asking him why Will thought he was a fag, and if he could get his AIDS infested ass out of his face and was saying that he wished Will would go to hell. Oh, and the fact that Will had been crushing on that guy for years, ever since he was 19 and they were best friends, the unfortunate event gave him a scar in his heart, the bastard's name forever engraved in his mind. Since then, Will hadn't asked anyone out unless they were special. And apparently, Nico is.

I saw Will's grin then suddenly widened and I was afraid that he would burst into a ray of sunshine, and heard him scream into the mic, "Yes! He said yes!" The crowd cheered for him, and Will blew a kiss at Nico and jumped off the bar and ran to the stage, and screamed, "He said yes!" He made the crowd roar again and then we continued on playing the rest of the songs on the setlist.

When we started playing TNT, I could feel the music. I could feel every string played, every chant, every sound in my veins. I no longer felt nervous, all I felt was the thrill of being there doing something I loved. I barely registered that quite the large group of people entered the bar and sat down on a table that was reserved for them. I kept chanting TNT into the microphone with Will, Michael, and Lee, while the crowd sang along. It was a relatively new song, we'd only played it a couple times before, but apparently everyone in the crowd knew the lyrics as they chanted the chorus with us.

It was suddenly time for my solo and I played my heart out, pouring my soul into the solo, barely looking at the guitar. It was like an extension of me, just another part of my body that I could control. I felt this inexplicable high while doing the solo, a high that drugs will never manage to beat. I loved it.

I finished the first solo, and Will immediately followed, singing the chorus and encouraging everyone to raise the fist and pump to the beat. I ran over to where Michael was and put my back against his, playing our guitars until it was time for the last solo and I walked over to the front of the stage, put my foot on top of a box and played the second solo, then finished the song.

The crowd cheered so loud when we finished the song, I thought that they might just blow the roof off. I grinned in awe, a constant chant of _HOW THE HELL DID WE DO THIS_ going through my mind as I switched guitars, grabbing the new acoustic one Hermes got me. "Hey guys!" I greeted, and the crowd went wild. I felt myself blush at their reaction. Hopefully my tan skin will save me. I waited until they calmed down a little bit, before continuing.

"So uh, I'm gonna sing a song that you probably all know. Can you guess it?" The crowd roared Good Riddance, and I laughed out of awe and surprise. "Didn't think you guys would guess it that fast. Anyways, here it goes!"

I started the song, plucking the strings for the intro before I started to sing. Once I started to sing, everyone took their phones out and turned on their flashlight and waved it in the air for the whole song. I felt myself stare in awe at everyone, waving their phones in their in sync. They softly sang the song with me, and I let them sing the chorus by themselves once I noticed that everyone knew the words. It was an indescribable feeling, having written a song and poured your heart into and feel and hundred other people sing along with you. I couldn't believe it.

I finished the song and felt the crowd go wild again. "We're Blue Cherry Coke and you guys are fucking awesome! Thank you so much!"

I placed my guitar back on the rack and walked down the stage with the guys, Silena slamming into us and bear hugging us, shouting, "You guys did it! I can't believe it!" She let us go, but kept her hand tangled with Beck's. "Congratulations you guys!"

"Thanks Sil," Beck said, kissing her on the forehead.

Leo suddenly came forward interrupting Beck and Silena and said, "Hey, where's my thanks? The lighting's an important part in performing live! It helps give the performance more epicness!"

"Thanks Leo," I said, patting him on the back. "Great lighting techniques. If only you had as good techniques in lighting with girls, but apparently not so," I shrugged.

Leo tugged on his suspenders, rolling his eyes. "I'll have you know that my techniques with girls are better than yours, seeing that I've actually had a girlfriend." He said smugly.

"Oh, the one you mentioned in your dream? Yeah, she's _very_ real." I retorted.

Leo opened his mouth to comeback at me, but Lee interrupted us. "You can continue bantering all you want tomorrow. Right now, we're going to celebrate the fact that we almost tore the roof down. And celebrate the fact that we didn't, or else we'd be in serious debt."

We walked over to The Booth and set down, thankfully, our plates were already served. Hestia must've sensed that we were going to be starving after the concert. She reminded me of my mother, in some ways. The fact made me miss her. "Thank you Hestia," Leo said enthusiastically, plopping down and scooting over so the rest of us could sit down. He grabbed his utensils and immediately started digging in. I sat down next to Leo with Michael and Lee, with Beck, Silena, and Will on the other side. We all immediately started digging in, savoring every bite.

Nico came by, asking Will where their date was going to be and at what time, to which Will suavely replied, "I'll pick you up at seven pm tomorrow and take you somewhere you'll love."

Nico thanked Will and said goodbye to everyone, evidently blushing a little bit. Silena squealed once Nico was out earshot. "Oh my god Will, he is the perfect match for you! Yet you're complete opposites, and it's such an adorable story! I love it! I wish you the best of luck."

Will grinned. "Thanks Silena. And yeah, he is."

We continued talking for the rest of the meal, occasionally laughing at a few jokes. I started cracking up at one thing Michael said, when I heard a very familiar voice shout, "Percy?!" I turned to look and lo and behold, it was Annabeth Chase with Thalia, Piper, and Grover behind her. She had an incredulous expression, her eyes as wide as dinner plates.

"Oh, shit."

* * *

 **Well, good night.**

 **~TheMistressOfAss (As TouchDouche said)**


	8. Of Comfort and Pity

_We continued laughing for the rest of the meal, occasionally laughing at a few jokes. I started cracking up at one thing Michael said when I heard a very familiar voice shout, "Percy?!" I turned to look and lo and behold, it was Annabeth Chase with Thalia, Piper, and Grover behind her. She had an incredulous expression, and her eyes were as wide as dinner plates._

 _"Oh, shit."_

"Um, hi?" I asked weakly.

"What the hell, Percy?" Annabeth yelled. She glared at me, her stormy gray eyes practically swirling. Although her tone implied that she was angry, her eyes indicated surprise, frustration and a small hint of... Wonder, maybe?

"Dude, that was sick!" I heard Grover say. He was grinning at me, staring at me as if I'd suddenly turned into Superman and lifted a bench with 10 people on it only with my pinkie.

"Oi, Perce! Who is this?" Michael asked looking at Annabeth and Piper with lust, "where are my manners? Name's Michael but you can call me Hotstuff."  
The band looked at Michael disapprovingly while Leo had a notepad out scribbling down what I assume were word for word what "Hotstuff" just said.

Annabeth and Piper ignored Michael, the former rolling her eyes at him and the other with a stiff "I have a boyfriend," while Beck pushed Michael away, the latter chuckling.

"Yeah." I heard Thalia grumble, continuing what Grover said. She had a more grudging expression on her face like someone had told her to eat an entire pineapple pizza or admit a secret. "You're good." She very _very_ reluctantly said.

I grinned and before I got the chance to tease Thalia, Annabeth rushed out, "Why didn't you tell anybody?"

I paused, thinking how I could phrase this sentence. "'Cause I didn't want to." I shrugged. It wasn't the full truth, but it wasn't a lie either.

She stared at me as if she were going to slam a beer bottle into my face. It's happened to me before, and all I can say about the experience is _ouch_. She then rolled her eyes, not believing me. "I understand how this can be a little intruding, but I don't exactly believe that's the sole reason."

"Fine." I sighed. I knew how stubborn Annabeth could get. After all, she does tutor me, and she's not exactly going to let an 'I can't do this' slide. "One, I didn't believe that you guys would ever believe me if I say I was in a band, two, you guys know me as the loner kid at school, so I didn't think you'd care, and three, I didn't think most of you deserved to know that music is my passion." I counted off the reasons with my fingers, bending each one after each reason.

I saw her eyes soften. "Percy of course, we'd care-

"Yeah right," I scoffed. She raised an eyebrow. "none of you give a shit. You guys tease me all the time, none of you speak to me and- and I'm just a charity case to you!" I snarled.

"Is that what you really think?" Annabeth replied, glaring at me harder than ever. I gritted my teeth and stared her down.

"Yes," My voice sounded more confident and steadier than what I really felt.

She huffed. "Fine then." She turned around and left. The whole table was quiet, as well as Thalia, Piper and Grover. I sighed, running my hand through my hair. I shouldn't have said that.

"Dude," Beck said. "Go after her. You're gonna regret it if you don't."

I looked back at him and realized that everyone else was thinking the same thing. I looked at Silena, who had a look of understanding on her face. She nodded at me and I groaned. "Fine." I stood up, sighing and grabbed my guitar.

Piper grabbed my shoulder before I could go. "You aren't a charity case to her." She said. Once I didn't say anything back, she continued. "You know that, right?" I remained tightlipped and shook her off. I'm a charity case to everyone.

* * *

"Annabeth!" I shouted the moment I saw her. She was outside of the bar and I'd caught her just as she was turning a corner. I'd been trying to find her inside of the bar, but a horde of people ambushed me, congratulating me and taking photos with me. It wasn't unpleasant, not at all, but I needed to find Annabeth in that moment.

"Annabeth!" I shouted again as she disappeared from view. I ran towards her, calling her name once more before she finally heard me and turned around. She was rubbing her arms and shivering, but she was trying to conceal it.

"What." She demanded.

I wheezed. "Give me a moment. Just because I swim a lot doesn't mean that I have a lot of stamina running." I took a deep breath, putting my hands on my knees before coming back up. "Look," I started, but I lost all my courage once I looked at Annabeth, who was currently glaring at me. "Um," I shuffled my feet and played with my fingers, looking down. I glanced back at her and she was staring at me expectedly one eyebrow raised. I sighed and glanced at my feet. "I'm sorry," I mumbled.

"What did you say?" She asked, her tone holding false innocence.

I glanced back at her. She was hiding a smirk. I glared at her. "You know what I said." Silence fell through and sheathed us like a blanket. I was very aware of the cars passing by and the honks in the distance.

"Percy," She began. I kicked at a pebble. "Look at me." I glanced at her, stuffing my hands in my pockets. Her eyes had softened. "You know that you're not a charity case to me, right?"

I didn't say anything. "Percy," She said in a softer tone.

I sighed. "Annabeth, leave it."

"Percy." She insisted.

"Annabeth," I said in the same tone.

"You aren't a charity case to me, or to anyone. You should know that."

I sighed again. "Annabeth-"

"Listen to me." She interrupted. "I'm not your friend because I pity you, Percy. I'm your friend because I genuinely like you and you're a good person." She stepped closer to me. "And your friends, or whoever they are, also care about you and just from being with them for 5 seconds I could tell that they like you too." I glanced back down. She grabbed my chin and made sure that I was looking at her. Her eyes were analyzing mine and I felt oddly vulnerable as if I had just stripped naked in front of her. "Don't let anyone tell you otherwise." She stated firmly. She then sighed, still looking into my eyes and hugged me.

Surprised, I didn't return the hug and kept my arms at my side. I felt her tense up, and that's when I decided to hug her. I buried my face in her hair and felt her relax. If I was aware of the cars speeding by before, then I was hyper aware of everything now. I could felt the smoothness of her tank top, her cold hands on my shoulders. the lemon scent of her hair, her breath, the sound of the insects at night. I took a shaky breath and felt her hug me tighter and start rubbing my back.

I didn't think anyone _could_ care about me. I didn't exactly grow up receiving praise and care, since the only person who showed that was my mom. All Gabe would do was slam me down and shout the opposite things my mother said. I hadn't even realized I believed him.

We stayed like that for a couple minutes. She pulled away from me first. "Thanks to you, I'm warm now." She said, smiling tenderly.

I gasped. "Is that the reason why you hugged me?" I pointed a finger at her dramatically. "You traitor!"

She laughed and pushed my shoulder, "I regret nothing." I flipped my hair dramatically and pouted. "Uh uh, that isn't gonna work on me." She retorted chuckling.

I broke character and started laughing lightly with her. The chuckles died out and I spoke., pointing behind me. "Do you wanna go back? It's a little cold outside."

"Sure."

* * *

I know it's only a little bit, but writers block and school is currently killing me and I couldn't keep you guys waiting any longer. Underlined segment belongs to Stanly3011, so go check him out!


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